


Aura Reader: Masters of Time

by DanDraco



Series: Aura Reader [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Aura Reader, Aura Reader 2, Gen, Masters of time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 20:02:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 45,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanDraco/pseuds/DanDraco





	1. Intro: For those of you just joining us

2 years ago, I was a messager for my uncle’s freerunning delivery. It was a pretty sweet gig, running across rooftops delivering packages to people you’d never knew. The job may have been fun but school wasn’t. The classic ‘being bullied around’ thing. I always hated them. But one day… I discovered my destiny. I’m a being far beyond human; an Aura Reader. My father was one too. My kind has the ability to see aura and control one of the five elements. But my family was different, we could control all five. My uncle’s business is actually a disguise for a origanizion that honors the Aura Readers and finish what they started. Half of my kind was killed by a trailer; the enemy of the Aura Readers: the Dark Readers. At first, I didn’t want anything to do with being an Aura Reader. Until I ran into Logan. He demanded I give him a mask. He told me that he killed my parents and wants what my father found. When he found out I didn’t have it, he let me go saying ‘to train for the fight ahead’. That’s when I decided to learn about my kind.  
We went to each of the cities, going to each temple that would lead us to this artifact. Along the way, I found out my girlfriend was an Aura Reader. Eventually, we found the mask, the mask of dimensions, the thing that brought all Aura Readers here and what took them elsewhere. Logan and I fought for it. I won, but in his dying breath he showed me a vision of the future, a horrible future. His son is coming, the prince of shadows. A Dark Reader that only I can defeat. As long as I’m strong and ready to face him.  
2 years after that, my friend Callen came back from his duty in Paldia, he came to ask me and Fate’s for our help with a dictator issue. It could also help my problem with the son. The Zodian corps found these keys with a strange energy. They think it can help amplify my powers. All I had to do was stop their dictator.  
I need those powers. The prince is coming. And I will be ready.


	2. Caught Off-Guard

We were waiting on a ship to set out to Paldia. The dictator at Paldia discontinued the airports so we couldn’t take a plane. Uncle Marc, Fate and I were going with him. Marc gets seasickness and he was throwing up early.  
“And you see why we never took us on a cruise.” He said  
“Yep.” I said. He must have sensed me having my problems cause he came on over to cheer me up.  
“Django, come on, cheer up. Our problems will be solved.” He tried to comfort me. Easy for him to say. He doesn’t have face the ultimate Dark Reader ever. Fate walked up and hugged me.  
“It’ll be fine.” She said “You’re the best Aura Reader in existence, nothing could beat you.” She said in a puppy voice. It helped somewhat.  
“We’re going there, get some new powers, and come right back.” I said  
“And you say I’m a killjoy.” Marc said as he was puking up more chucks. I could sense Callen walking in.  
“Well you were a bit of a…” Callen didn’t finish and Marc interrupted him.  
“Watch what you say, Callen” Marc said  
“I won’t finish” He said. “And Django, once we’re there, we’re going to be about the three Bs: Beer, bacon,--” Fate gave him the ‘you pervert’ look “-- and mechanical bulls” I chuckled a little.  
“Ok, maybe some party time, but we have to focus.” I said.  
“Whatever” Callen said “This --“ I was wondering why he didn’t finish until I looked his way. Several helicopters came from the horizon. They flew past us and headed to the center of the city.  
“Did you call back up?” I asked. Callen just stared at them. “I thought you said airports in Paldia were closed.”  
“They are…” Callen said “We have to go now.”  
“Why do we have too….?” I felt a strong power from near from where we were. I looked over and something jumped out of the helicopter and landed with a giant boom; kicking up ash into the air. The sky grew dark and there was energy bursts everywhere. People were running for their lives. I sense its energy and I knew what it was. “No… no, no, no!” I jumped off the ship and landed in the dock. I ran to the source. It was him. The gate was closed with people crowding around it looking for an escape. I used the aura grip to open it and they ran to our ship. Callen called me on my phone  
“Django, what are you doing? We have to leave now!”  
“Django come back!” Fate said  
“This will be quick, I’m ready for this.” I said. I glanced toward the person guarding the ramp up to the boat. "Get the boat moving, I'll catch up." "Yes, sir." She saluted and ran up the ramp.

I ran to the street across the docks and saw him. A hooded figure with black hood with a white pattern. He also had gauntlets that had retractable swords. It was him. It was The Son.  
“Logan warned me about you! I’m not going to let that future happen!” I said as I fired some aura missiles. He read them out of the way and fired a dark beam. I made an earth barrier and launched it at him. He used the same teleportation technique Logan used to use. He teleported behind me and tried to strike me with his swords. I pulled out my star blade to block him. He teleported again and he grabbed me.  
“I thought you’d be tougher” He finally said. He had a low volume voice. It was hard to recognize  
“I won’t sit by and let you destroy everything” I told him  
“Unfortunately, you’ll have to. Since you’re in the way of the plan.”  
“What Plan!?”  
He smiled and ignored my question. He took my star blade. “This was your father’s wasn’t it? How does it feel to have something taken from you? Not great isn’t it?” He put it in his sling. His sword came out of his gauntlet. “Now, I can get what I always wanted.” He was about to kill me until someone shot him. He let go and I made some distance. Uncle Marc shot him.  
“Django, get back to the ship!” He said  
“No! I’m not running!” I said.  
“You’ll both wish you had.” The Son said. He teleported near Marc and…. God, it was painful to watch. I watched unable to do anything while he rammed his sword through his body. He killed him. It happened so fast I couldn’t do anything.  
“Django……” Marc’s last words were.  
“No… NO!!!” I got so angry I used the Aurora storm. I heard The Son scream I gave in to my anger and threw everything I had into it. When it was over he fell. I ran back to the ship. As I was running back, I heard The Son yell. His aura was going out of control. God, the power that came out of him, it was beyond what I can do. I called Callen and Fate back.  
“Guys…”  
“What happened?” Callen asked  
“Baby, what happened!?” Fate asked  
“He killed… He killed Uncle Marc!” I tried to get out.  
“What….” Fate said. She was surprised.  
“Django, get back to the ship quick!” Callen yelled  
“I’m coming.” I ran back. Before I got on the ramp, The Son teleported again. He used his aura grip to knock me back.  
“Django? Leaving so soon?” He said I used the aura repulse and knocked him back.  
“You’re going to hell, ass hat.” I said. He teleported again; this time right in front of me and he used the mind-link.  
“Oh no. I’m sorry but I can’t let you live. Even though you’re much weaker.” He taunted. I wanted to get away. I panicked and used the elemental overload and used the aurora storm again. We both got hit in a long lasting aura strike. I felt the overload and the Aurora Storm slipped anyway from. He took anyway my strongest powers. We both got knocked back and I landed in the water. He got back up looking injured.  
“We’ll meet again, Django” he disappeared.  
“Django!” 

Fate and Callen pulled me out and the ship set sailed. Away from Ace city. That attack was unbearable. It felt like the end. Almost wished it was. I woke up in our bedroom on the ship. Fate fell asleep next to me. I kissed her on the cheek like we always do. But on the TV, I saw a news report. The Son and his army took control of the city. Now my hometown of Ace city… is dead.  
We ran for it, heading south to Paldia. People on the ship were from Ace city, they escaped with their lives. When they saw me, they kept their distance. It wasn’t from fear. They saw my defeat and knew I need some space. Fate, Callen, and the Zodian Corps were planning our next move. They let me be because of what I witnessed. They kept doing their jobs as though it’ll make the world right again. But I knew better.  
I was born to stop this war. To stop The Son from destroying everything, I gave it all I had and it wasn’t even half way close to enough. That needed to change. The next day, I went straight to training, Fate helped and in some cases, with stress related problems. We were nearing Paldia, and the only hope to defeat The Son was in that city.  
I don’t know if you let someone down, got your ass kicked or straight-up failed. But those are the moments that define us. They force you to go farther than you ever thought possible and in the end; you surpass your past self. I will surpass my limits, I will be stronger than before, I will kill The Son. I will go beyond ultimate.


	3. Homecoming

I was at the front of the ship looking at Paldia. Callen and Fate came by and stood next to me. We stopped in some cities so the survivors can get off.  
“I know seeing… that happen was unbearable.” He tried to comfort me. How many kids who see someone kill their uncle go sane after that?  
“We’ll get revenge on that douche of a bag.” Fate said. I just continued staring. Thinking of how I could’ve stopped that from happening.  
“Don’t worry, Django, when we get to the city everything will be…” Callen stopped and looked at something. He radioed the captain “Captain, stop the ship now!” the ship came to a stop.  
“What’s wrong?” I asked. Callen pointed to the docks. They had large anti-air guns on them.  
“That. The docks are on lock down too, apparently. If we go any closer, they’ll sink us.”   
“What do we do?” Fate asked  
“We have to destroy them.” Callen said  
“Time I introduced myself.” I said. I was about to jump in the water and swim to shore so I can get to the guns. Callen stopped me.   
“Wait, Django. Take this” He gave me a new long-sword.  
“Thanks, I’ll need it” I said  
“I’m going too.” Fate said. “I can sink the left while you get the right.” I didn’t like the idea. She barely had any type of training. But I know Fate. If I try to stop her, she’ll only want to do it more.  
“Be careful, hon” I said as I kissed her cheek  
“Aren’t I always?” she said.  
I jumped in the water and swam to shore. I sneaked to the guns from the swamp. The swamp surrounds the city. It’s the may reason why it wasn’t found. The swamp is thick and dense. Getting through is hard. But somehow, this dictator made it through. I always hated the swamp. Humid and warm. Not my heaven. I don’t know how this city can have a beach.  
“Callen, by the way, what’s the name of this group that’s controlling Paldia?” I asked him on the radio  
“It’s two actually. The pervious ‘owner’ of Paldia was a group named the Ark Raiders.”  
“They must be Indiana Jones fans.” Fate said  
“This new group overthrew the leader of the Ark Raiders and became new leader. They are called Darkwatch. We don’t know who the leader is. But the Ark Raiders and Darkwatch work together.”  
“Really? No war for control or anything?” This was strange. Your city is about to be taken over and you just beg to join them? At least you’ll live, but that could hurt someone’s pride.  
“The leader surrendered when Darkwatch invaded. Because of that, he’s a ‘co-leader’”  
“Who’s the leader of the Ark Raiders?”  
“His name is Eli Wolf. He’s a very pious man.”  
“Pious? Great… he’s one of THOSE people.” I never liked religion. I really hated people that tried to shove their religion down peoples’ throats. To me, they are very closed minded people.  
“Yeah, hearing his ‘freaks will die’ thing gets really, really old and annoying.”   
I made it to the gun station. I had to fight my way through; the soldiers wore baggy pants with armor plating and wore masks. When I got there, I smashed the controls. Fate did the same on her end. For a test run on stealth, she was good.  
“Ok, Callen you’re clear to dock” I radioed him.  
“Thanks” Callen said. The ship docked in the docks.   
“This placed changed a lot.” Fate said “Remember the good old days?”  
Yeah. Yeah… I remember Paldia. Uncle Marc took me, Fate, and Blake here four years ago to teach us parkour. God, it was perfect. There was a parkour contest and Fate won as the first female to win. Man, this place was heaven for parkour artists. In most cites, when you start to climb you got maybe 10 to 15 minutes ‘til the cops come after you, but here, they had their hands fill.  
But not anymore, now the Ark Raiders and Darkwatch taken over, eyeing everyone, and punishing people who look like ‘deviants’. Or at least that’s what they say. To me, their looking for an excuse to bash peoples’ heads. But somewhere in this city lies the key to beating The Son and amplifying my powers. These douches are going to get in my way, trying to kill me to keep their town ‘pure’. I say bring it.

Callen got off the ship.   
“Ok, we found a key near here. Come on.” He said. Fate and I followed. As we followed, we looked around, people were walking to work like nothing’s wrong. But Fate and I sensed their fear. As though in any moment, some solider will come and attack. These people look like they’re about to explode. We looked around and we saw some Ark Raiders around. “These are the Ark Raiders. They act as infantry for Darkwatch.” Callen explained.  
“Where’s Darkwatch?” I said  
“They’re around. But you two shouldn’t underestimate them.”  
“Why?” Fate asked  
“They are like how the Zodian Corps follow the Aura Readers, Darkwatch follows the Dark Readers. They’re trying to keep the Dark Reader dream alive.” He said  
“So some power-crazy lunatic is trying to replace the Dark Readers?” Fate asked  
“Yep.” Callen’s radio was buzzing. “Hello?”  
“Callen, I hear the surface-to-water guns are out of commission. Why didn’t you call before you made an entrance?” The female voice said  
“Word spreads fast in this place” Fate said.  
“I got Django and Fate. We’re heading for the outpost.” Callen said  
“Be careful, you three, Ark Raiders and Darkwatch are everywhere looking for ‘the deviants that sunk our guns’”  
“We’ll be fine.” Callen said.   
“Who’s that?” I asked. Then my radio buzzed and the same voice was on there  
“It’s not nice to ask that”  
“How the hell did you do that!?” I said. It was like she was looking at us with cameras and knew what I would say.  
“That’s Haidy” Callen said  
“I have my connections, young man.” I instantly knew it was a old woman “Just all of you come to the ops center when your done. We have to study the key.” She hung up.  
“Scary, isn’t she?” Callen said  
“A little.”  
“Yeah. She’s like that.” His radio buzzed again.  
“What was that Callen?” Haidy asked  
“Nothing” Callen said fast. The next second, a missile launcher was launched. It missed, but got our attention. “Launch trooper!”  
“I got it.” I said. He fired again, but I used my aura grip and caught the rocket in midflight, and sent it back at him. The balcony he fired from broke under him. “Wow! How did I do that?”  
“Did you just caught a missile in mid-air?” Fate asked  
“I think so.” I said.  
“Their on to us. Come on, we’re taking a short cut.” Callen toke us to a ally  
“Where do we go?” Fate asked  
“The rooftops.” I said “Better than death from above.”  
“Ok, I’ll go back to ops. You two get the key. It’s in a purple safe, you can’t miss it”  
“You’re not coming?” I asked  
“Rooftops are mainly your forte.” Callen said  
“Excuses.” I said.  
Fate and I climbed to the top. We headed for the location of the safe. We got rid of some Ark Raiders and made it. I opened the safe and found some stone in it. It was in a shape of a key but it had energy around it. The symbol for water was carved into it.   
“What is it?” Fate asked  
“I wish I knew.” I said. “I’ll radio Callen.” I radioed him “Callen, I got the key, still at ops?”  
“Django! The other oupost! … no…” We heard a loud boom. An outpost nearby exploded. Smoke and something else flew into the air.  
“What the hell was that!?” Fate asked  
“Our keys…” I said. “Come on, we have to go now!” Fate and I ran into the outpost.   
We found it wreaked. We hear a coughing sound coming from somewhere. We say a guy underneath some rubble. We helped him out.  
“You ok?” I asked  
“Yeah.” The guy said. “I really shouldn’t try to defuse a bomb with a knife, doesn’t work the same.”  
“Who are you?” Fate asked  
“Name’s Eric. I’m a computer specialist for the Zodian Corps. I was assigned to here to study the keys. But those damn Ark raiders thought using grenades near high energy was a great idea. The bastards.”   
“How’d you live?” I asked.   
“I, uhhh, Hid… in the closet…”   
“Talk about coming out of the closet.” Fate joked  
“Great, now what?” I said  
“Sorry…” Eric apologized.  
“It’s not your fault” Fate said.  
“We still have that key.” Eric pointed out.  
“What do these things do, anyway?” I held up the piece to him.  
“They’re suppose to unlock something first of all,”   
“Yeah, we figured that when you called them keys” Fate said  
“Anyway, they contain an energy we can’t identify, but we do know is that if you pass an energy surge through it, it’ll release into the nearest being.”  
“Wait a sec, this will make me stronger?”  
“Hell yeah! And that’s just the first. There are six in total” I got excited. This could help me get enough power to beat The Son.  
“Enough prep talk lets do this.” I pasted my energy into it. The energy from the key released and forced its way into me. I felt surge and it was great. When it was over I fell and got knocked out. 

_It was in the middle of a battle, Dark readers attacked from all sides. We fought back but it was hard. They’re anger was powerful. Enough to injure us greatly  
“Where did they come from?”  
“I know…”  
“Is it really him?”  
“Yes.”  
“You should’ve finished him when you had the chance.”  
“I couldn’t end the life of my best friend.”  
“But he started all of this!”  
“… I know.”_

I woke up some minutes later,  
“Dude you ok?” Eric asked  
“You ok, baby?” Fate Asked  
“What happened?” I asked  
“You were knocked up” Fate said  
“Thank you for making it sound wrong, Fate” Fate has a pervy personally. Name anything and she’ll make it sound wrong.  
“Do you feel stronger?” Eric asked  
“I feel something…” I said. Just then, Ark Raiders attacked again. “Time to test it out” They open fired at us. I focused hard and made a barrier of aura. This barrier caught all the bullets and when they stopped, the energy released and all the bullets went back at them.   
“What the hell was that?” Fate asked  
“My new power”  
“I should get used to that, huh?”  
“You should.” I sensed one of them getting up, I saw them “Hold up, I feel something else” I threw a grenade. It wasn’t like my usual grenades, this one was light blue and when it exploded the guy got launched in the air. But when he was in the air, it was like time slowed down. He was in slow-mo.  
“Now what was that?” Eric said  
“I don’t know…” I looked at my hand “Is this a new element?”


	4. Talent Scout

We escorted Eric back to Ops. Ops was in the container district. It’s a collection of small houses along side a hill. It was like in Rio with all those containers. They’re not worried about the earthquakes; the Aura Readers built this place to stand them.  
We went into what looked like an abandoned building,   
“This is it?” Fate said  
“I though it was the Aura Readers who said ‘you have to use more than just regular sight.’” Eric said. We went to the ally way and went into a door. Eric knocked on the door. A little slide opened and the guard said “We hide in the shadows…” I didn’t know what he meant by that but Eric said “… to bring back the light.”   
The guard closed the slide and opened the door for us. We went into a giant office. Some desks here and there. On one side was a desk but there was whole bunch of clothes.   
“Welcome to the Zodian Corps base of Paldia.” Eric said  
“Nice digs.” Fate said  
“There’s more to it then this.” He said. “Up there is the op center, over there leads to the training room, gun range, lockers, and armory. You’re welcome to use it.”   
“Thanks.” I said as I shaked his hand  
“No, thank you for saving my ass.” Eric said  
“Eric!” I heard the same old lady voice from earlier. Eric freaked out like he was scared.   
“Oh, hi Haidi.”  
“I see you brought the Aura Readers. Its about time, we need you back at ops.”   
“Yes ma’am” Eric went back up to ops. Haidi went down the steps to welcome Fate and I. She was an old woman. She had winkles and white long hair but had no trouble walking.   
“You must be Marc’s nephew.” She said   
“Uh, yes I am.” I said  
“He told me a lot about you two. I’m sorry for your loss.” She was talking about his murder. I tried not to let it come to my head.  
“Don’t be. It was my fault.”  
“Django, he was super fast, you couldn’t stop him.” Fate said  
“What’s done is done, right now; we’re going to need someone to lead the Zodian Corps.” She said looking at me. I knew what she meant.  
“Whoa, whoa, I can’t lead the Zodian Corps! I don’t know how.” I told her. I’m a follower not a leader. I can’t come up with all the planning. I have the superpowers, that makes me more of a warrior than a leader.  
“We know. You’re too young with no experience. For now, me and the other leaders in the cities will take over, but we need a true leader to lead us.” I looked down being unsure of all of this. “We know you’re not ready. But you will get experience when you’re out on the field. Come, we have a lot to discuss in Ops.” She said as she went up the stairs. We went up to Ops. It was a dark room surrounded by computer screens. It was extremely hi-tech. We found Callen there with other agents.   
“Hey, Django.” He said “How was the welcome party?”  
“Too rough for my standards.” I said “Oh and here” I gave him the key I absorbed.  
“You absorbed it?” He asked  
“Yep. Got a couple of new powers with it.”  
“Where’s the rest?” He asked. I looked at Eric  
“Ark Raiders came were coming into my place, and I panicked” Eric said  
“So our collection is gone?” Callen asked  
“Sorry.” Eric said  
“Well… at least they’ll have a hard time getting them” He said  
“We have good news.” Haidi said. “There have been a couple of Ark Raider camps being destroyed.”  
“You’re telling us this because?” Callen asked  
“Someone is destroying them. He could be a worthy edition to the team.” Haidi said  
“What do you want us to do?” Callen asked  
“We need you, Django, and Fate to find him and recruit him to the Zodain Corps if you can.” Haidi said. “He’s at these coordinates.” She sent them to our GPS. 

After the briefing, we went downstairs.   
“Wait Django.” Haidi said. “I have to give this.” She gave me a new hooded robe. A remade version of the one Marc gave me two years ago. Except it’s in a different pattern and the sleeves are cut off.   
“Why are the sleeves cut off?” I asked.  
“Paldia can be very hot at times, especially the swamps. Good luck Django.” She said. Wait, swamps? Oh yay. 

I went to the location of where we were planning to head out. Fate and I saw Callen with binoculars looking at an abandoned mansion that lead to the swamp.  
“Getting to this guy’s last known location might be tougher than we thought.” Callen said  
“Ark Raiders?” Fate asked  
“Yep.” Callen said. I was staring at the swamps. “You ok there?” Callen asked me  
“I don’t know.” I said  
“Baby, no one said it would be easy.” Fate said. As though she can read my mind. We always were like that. Whenever something was bugging me, she can pick it up instantly. I always tell her everything.  
“Fate, The Son is threatening everything and everyone will be relying on me to stop him. Now the only chance we have to defeat him is gone.” I told her  
“It’s not the end of the world, Django.” Callen said. I looked at him with a doubtful face. “Ok maybe it is. But the other keys are out there.”  
“What if I can’t? I’ve always get beaten up all my life and I never fought back.”  
“That was before when you had nothing to fight with.” Fate said “Now you do.” I hugged Fate.  
“Ok, back to the mission.” I said “You said Ark Raiders were at the mansion?”  
“Yeah, they’re all over the place.” Callen said  
“Why would they guard a worthless mansion?” I asked myself  
“We’ll figure that out later.” Callen said “What we have to do is go into the swamp and recruit this guy.”  
“God, I hate the swamp.” I said  
“Who doesn’t?” Callen said “But in order to get in, we’re going to need a boat. And look what they have!” He gave me the binoculars and pointed at the pier. There was a fishing boat.   
“A fishing boat?” Fate said  
“Yes, we’ll use that to get deep into the swamp…”  
“I hate the swamp”  
“… I know you do, and it’ll be smooth sailing.”  
“How will we do this?” I asked  
“We’re going to have to charge in.” Callen said  
“Just like that? Ok…” I said as I jumped off the building. I used an aura push on the gate. There was an ambush of gun fire. I used my telekinetic shielding to stop the bullets when they were in awe; I released and sent it back.   
“So that’s what you can do now.” Callen said  
“Yep.” I said.   
We fought our way to the boat. They were no match for us. We made it to the pier. Callen went up to the driving seat and Fate and I were at the deck.  
“Now we just enjoy the ride.” Callen said  
“God, it’s so hot and humid out here.” Fate said  
“That’s the cost of wearing black in a swamp.” Callen sarcastically said.  
“Wait you two, something’s out there.” I said. I saw sniper towers. Ark Raiders were using them. “Callen slow down!”   
“Why are they all the way out here?” Fate asked  
“I don’t know. But if we keep going, they’re going to destroy us.” I said. “Callen, stop the boat here. Fate, go on the other side and kill the ones on that side.”   
“You got it.” She said. I went in and saw an Ark Raider camp. I avoided them and climbed the tower. I used the mind-link on the sniper. When I did, I heard screams from the camp. There was yelling and gunfire.   
“Callen, I think the saboteur is here. He’s attacking an Ark Raider camp.” I told him through the radio  
“Wait, There’s someone attacking the camp over here.” Fate said  
“Wait, if two camps are being attacked at the same time, then who’s attacking.” Callen asked. I went to the camp and saw all the soldiers’ dead. There was claw marks on the trees and on the dead.   
“Guys, we’re not alone out here.” I told them  
“I know… The Ark Raiders are here too.” Callen said. Trying to calm the mood. It wasn’t working.  
“No, I mean there’s something else here. Like beasts or something. There were claw marks on the dead.” I explained  
“There are claw marks over here too.” Fate said. We heard more yells by the other towers. They were distracted.   
“Guys, get back to the boat, we’ll let them fight it out.”   
Fate and I went back to the boat, we ridden across and we saw the Ark Raiders dead. “What the hell killed them?”  
“Just focus on the location of this saboteur.” I said. We were then pasted by another camp. They were dead too. I saw something burrowing underground.   
“Ok...” I said. “You guys saw that right?”  
“I did.” Fate said  
“I wish I didn’t” Callen said.   
We then entered a dense fog. We couldn’t see anything. But we heard a growling.   
“What the hell was that!?” Callen said. He was scared shitless.  
“Shhh! Just keep going.” I said. It was a long silence. We heard large foot steps and growling. Whatever is here, it isn’t human.  
“What the hell, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell…” Callen said  
“Django, our Aura Sense.” Fate said. I used my aura sense and saw… I didn’t know what I saw. I saw… creatures… They look like people but they were mutated.  
“Fate?” I asked  
“I see it too.” She said  
“What is it?” Callen asked  
“Shhhhhhh!” I said. There was another long silence. I expected something to jump out at us. We stood there in anticipation. We exited the fog and didn’t see anything.  
“What the hell was that!?!?!?” Callen yelled as so as we exited.  
“I don’t know, are we there yet?” I asked  
“Yeah… yea we’re here.” He said.

We stopped at in an area of the swamp where the trees were taller than the rest. At least there was solid ground.   
“Come on, this way.” Callen said. We followed the path. “Guys, what was back there?”  
“I think it’s best if you don’t know.” Fate told him.  
“Yeah, I’m still shiting bricks.” Callen said.  
We kept on walking until we hit an area where was barely any trees.  
“Hm. This is the location.” Callen said  
“Then where is he?” Fate asked. I sensed an attack. Fire balls from the treetops fired at us. I pushed Callen out of the way and Fate dodged.  
“There” Someone from the treetops dropped down and when he made contact with the ground, a wave of fire burst from him. I read it out of the way. When it settled, I saw a man wearing an Aura Reader robe and wearing a giant scarf. He also had a great sword. This man was an Aura Reader; a Fire Reader.  
“You dare enter my home!?” The man yelled. He was really pissed. “You’re going to regret it, assassins!”  
“What!? We’re not assassins!” I yelled  
“Please! I know Dark Reader assassins when I see them!” He charged right at me. He used his boots which launched him. I blocked it with my sword.   
“Look at me! I’m an Aura Reader!” I reasoned with him. He used his boots to launch himself back.   
“Please! The Aura Readers are gone!” He yelled. Fate attacked him with fire missiles.  
“He’s telling the truth!” She yelled  
“We’re here to recruit you for the Zodian Corps so you can help us fight the Ark Raiders and Darkwatch!” Callen yelled  
“Zodian Corps? Nice try, assassins! I would never join a human resistance, they would hold me back.”   
“So much for helping us.” Callen said. The man launched himself again. When he got close enough, he launched a fire wave at us. I dodged it but he pinned me to a tree.   
“Now I got you…” He stopped mid-sentence and had a shocked face. “… Wait… It can’t be… You’re… You’re Mordecai’s son.” I was shocked by those words. That was my dad’s name.  
“How do you know my father’s name?” I asked.   
“Let go of him!” Fate demanded. He looked over to her and had the same face.  
“Wait…” He released me “Fate…”  
“How do you know my name?” She asked  
“How do you know my dad?” I asked again.  
“Fate, it’s me… your father.” He removed the scarf and hood. He had untidy hair and a goatee.  
“What?” Fate said “No, my dad walked out on me and mom!”  
“I’m sorry; I wasn’t allowed to see you…” He said. “I thought you were dead… I’m sorry. Come with me. I have a lot of catching up to do.”


	5. We are Never Alone

We headed for this guy’s hideout. My head was flooding with questions. Of all places, what are the chances that we encounter Fate’s father? What are the chances that the saboteur was a Fire Reader? He seems to know my father. Maybe now I can get even more answers. We went to his hut. It was in the trees. It was a small place, pictures of him and some other Aura Readers, some of my father and Fate’s mother, and some diagram and blueprints.   
“Your father, Logan and I were part of the Zodian Elite.” The man said. “We were the best of friends.”  
“But what is your name?” Callen asked  
“Sorry, my name is Paris”  
“Why is it Aura Readers have weird names?” Callen asked  
“They are special names which have deep meaning” Paris said. He seemed a bit more anger at Callen for some reason. He did mansion he didn’t like the Zodian Corps earlier.   
“I have a question” Fate said “How the hell are you my dad? Of all places, you turn out to be here.” Fate looked angry and relieved at the same time. She finally gets to see her father but has many questions as I did. She never grew up with a father. She comes by my place so much; Uncle Marc was more of a father to her.   
“I wasn’t at Ace city when it was attacked. I was on my way here.” Paris said  
“Bullshit.” Fate said “Mom told me that you were banished for your ‘crime’” Paris froze, trying to hide something. What ever this crime he did, he looked like he never wanted that topic brought up.  
“… I don’t want to talk about it.”   
“Why? What did you do? Did you kill another Aura Reader?”   
“No!” Paris said “I would never kill another Aura Reader! It’s just…” He put his hand on his forehead. “Let’s say I made a choice I shouldn’t have made.” He didn’t want to talk about it. I can sense that he’s still in great pain from that decision. “Anyway, I’m currently trying to undo my mistake.”  
“Undo?” I asked “How can you undo it?”  
“It has something to do with those keys Ark Raider and Darkwatch found” Paris said  
“What?” Callen said.   
“How can these keys undo your mistake?” I asked. He went to his wall and pointed at a picture. It looked like some kind of round circles placed on top and spread out of each other in the center was a giant platform. I don’t know how to describe it exactly.   
“This.” He pointed at. We stood there in silence  
“Ok, what the hell is it?” Fate asked  
“According to Aura Reader legend, this is the place where it all began. Here ‘time and space are maintained.’ The great core.” Paris explained. “The keys around the city can get me there. If the legend is correct” This kind of explained the keys exsistence. But I remembered the Mask of dimensions Logan used 2 years ago.  
“What about the mask of dimensions? Why not use that? Why use the keys?” I asked. Callen pulled me aside so no one can hear us.  
“Django, come on. This guy sounds like a loon.” Callen told me  
“This guy could give us answers on my kind.” I told him.   
“You sure about this?”  
“I’m sure” I move away from Callen and listened to Paris.  
“The keys were created as a firewall. The mask was used as an only a one-way travel so people who would travel to the core for power, couldn’t get to it by using the mask. In order to get to the core, you need to get the keys. Your father and Logan found the mask of dimensions in the Ace city temple; it was proof that the mask was what the earliest Aura Readers used to come here.”  
“Yeah, Logan told me the mask was used for that.” I remembered that. I wish I didn’t though.  
“I have been studying everything about the core for years. Now because of my mistake, I have made it a priory.” Paris said. After Paris finished, I thought of what would happen if this was real. Could the core save my kind? Save my family? If it can ‘undo’ mistakes, if it can turn back time, can I save everyone? Prevent millions from dieing?  
“What about me and mom?” Fate asked. Paris turned around   
“Fate, I thought you and your mother died in the invasion. This whole thing I have been doing was one of the two reasons why I’m searching for the core.” Paris tried to explain. “To save my kind and undo the stupid mistake I made, and save my family… Save Mordecai…. My best friend”   
Fate didn’t know what to believe anymore. She never grew up with a father. If you never seen your father and just meet him, and you ask why he left, and he said a valid answer, would you still believe him?  
“What a second.” Callen said “Is it possible that Darkwatch is searching for the core too?”  
“What are you talking about, Callen?” I asked  
“The Ark Raiders and Darkwatch have been trying to take the keys from us as soon as we got them. And by what you said, Paris, it seems like they want to find this core.” Callen suggested  
“I don’t know what Darkwatch plans to do, but all I know is, I need to get to the core first.” Paris said. A long silence filled the room. “But enough gloom and doom, I have something for you two.” He went to a trunk and took out two pairs of boots. The same kind he used. I remembered that Logan and his Son had the same pair.  
“Boots?” I asked  
“At least they look badass.” Fate said   
“These are jet-boots.” Paris said. “Something Mordecai and I made.” He activated his and hovered along the floor to give us an idea. “They’re like rollerblades on steroids.” He tossed them to us. Fate put them on and so did I.   
“How do they work?” I asked  
“Come with me.” He jumps out of his hut. Fate and I followed  
“Ok, that’s cool guys! I’ll just walk.” Callen said.  
“Ok, follow me.” Paris said “If you can catch up.” He used his jet-boots and jetted fast. “Focus your aura to your feet! The boots will do the rest!” He called out. I tried to focus and I activated them.   
“Whoa.” I tired to keep my balance. Fate activated her’s too.   
“Come on.” She said as she followed Paris. I followed too. It was hard to get used to. It was hard to turn and keep balance. I had an idea to use read the air around me to balance myself. I came up to a turn; I decreased focus on reading the air on my right side and leaned right. I turned right. I was getting used to them. I caught up to Paris and Fate.  
“Whoa.” I said “That was…”  
“Fun?” Paris said  
“Yeah.” I said. “But why give us these?” I asked  
“Mordecai wanted me to train you two to use these things. I always keep my promises.” He said. Callen caught up with us catching his breath.   
“No fair!” He stopped to catch his breath again. “You guys are Aura Readers! I can’t run that fast.”  
“Sorry, dude.” I said  
“Just keep training; I’ll stay here with Paris.” Callen said. Paris frowned at the idea. But didn’t say anything.  
“Now, Django, Fate, I have something to teach you.” Paris said. He used his jet-boots and balanced on a piece of fallen tree to jet to the other side. “Try it.”  
“I’m not sure if we can do that.” I said.  
“Just try it.” He said. I used my jet-boots and tried to balance on the fallen tree. It was hard. You had to zip along it fast. One wrong move and you will fall to your death. I managed to make it. When I got to the end, I got launched off the tree. Fate got across too.  
“Wow. That will come in handy.” I sense something in the trees. “You hear that?” I asked Fate and Paris.  
“Them again” Paris said  
“Who?” I asked  
“Not who. What” Paris said. In that moment something attacked Paris. I didn’t know how to describe it. It looked human but mutated. It had huge claws on its hands and feet. I used my aura grip to get the monster off of Paris and throw it away. I sensed these things on the way here. More came out. They howled. It was loud and unbearable.  
“So that’s why the Ark Raiders are camped here.” Fate said  
“Exactly.” Paris said “I destroy the camps that get too close to my hut. They camp here in the swamp to keep these things out of the city.”  
“What are these things?” I asked  
“I don’t know.” Paris said as he threw his sword at them. It hit a lot of them and it came back to him. He launched some fire missile at them. One jumped on top of me. I used the wind push to get him off. More came at me. I used my sword to parry it’s attack and stab it. I used my new grenade and threw it at the group. They were slowed down. Paris was surprised by my new power  
“What type of grenade was that?” Paris asked  
“I was hoping you know” I said  
“It’s none I know of. And I’m an expert on explosives.”   
We fought them off. The rest ran away.   
“Giant swamp monsters… for once, I’m not the freak in this town.” I said  
“Those things started appearing here two years ago. I have been investigating where they are coming from with no leads.” Paris said.  
“First a dictator, then these keys of power, then this core thing, and now swamp monsters? What the hell is up with this place?” Fate asked 

We spend the rest of the time learning to use the boots. When it was over, I tired to get Paris to join us.   
“I’m sorry but I can’t.” Paris said  
“Why not? We could use another Aura Reader.” I tried to reason  
“I don’t like the Zodian Corps. I don’t like the idea of humans using our technology to fight each other.” He said  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa” Callen said “The Zodian Corps are not using Aura Reader technology to hurt others. We’re trying to save people and kill those who threaten life. We are on your side here.”  
“How do I know that you won’t get corrupted by it?” Paris said “Humans cause war and destruction. No matter how much they lie to themselves or others, they always get corrupted by power.” He and Callen had a stare off. “But however, I will join. But not for the humans, for the keys. Once Django, absorbed each one, I will use them to get to the core” He said.   
“… Deal” I said  
“Django, you sure this is the right choice here?” Callen asked me  
“Callen, if this true, think of what we can do. If this core does ‘maintain time and space’ maybe it can control time. We could stop the invasion and save the Aura Readers. Save my parents!” I told Callen  
“… I don’t know about this” Callen said  
“Trust me I know what I’m doing” I told Callen  
“But what if it’s not real?” Callen said  
“Then I’ll deal with it. But I know it’s true.”  
“You know, or you just see a chance to save your kind but not thinking of the consequences.” Callen said. I looked at him for a moment. Fate came up between us and put her arm around us.   
“Guys, we don’t know if this core is real or not. But we will deal with it when we get there. For now, let’s get those keys, and stop Wolf and this dictator.” Fate said. She looked at her father “And if it isn’t real… Will you still help us?” Paris took his time with the answer.  
“I will join. At least I get to see my daughter again.”  
With that out of the way, we went back to the boat and went back to the city. On the way, I’ve been thinking about what just happened. What are these swamp monsters? How they get here? But more importantly, is the core real? Can it save my kind? Save my parents? Could it turn the tide of this war? …. Can we end it?


	6. The Wolves Take the Stage

We made it back to ops. Paris was taking a look around. He still didn’t like the fact humans were copying the Aura Readers, but he dealed with it. Haidi came to welcome him.   
“Hello, you must be Paris.” She reached out her hand. Paris hesitated a little but shook her hand to.  
“Pressure to meet you, Mrs…”   
“The young ones call me Haidi.”  
“Nice to meet you, Haidi.” Upstairs, we heard a whistle coming from Eric.   
“Ladies and gentlegerms, Ops meeting now!” We went up. “We got an Opportunity, people—“ He saw Paris. “Hum… I’m sorry but who are you?”   
“He’s Paris.” Haidi told him. Hoping that he’ll get it. “From the swamp?” Eric had a puzzled look on his face. Until finally.  
“Ohhhh! Sorry. Nice to meet you Paris.”  
“Yes. Just brief us.”  
“Ok… Eli Wolf is having an ‘important’ speech tonight.”  
“Oh mother of god.” Callen said  
“What?” I asked  
“It’s another one of his ‘god will set us free us!’ Speeches.” Fate chuckled a little. “What?”  
“You said ‘mother of god’ before and your complaining how much he talks about god.” Fate explained. Eric chuckled. We starred at him.  
“Oh right. The mission.” He said “For months we’ve been trying to capture him at his speeches for questioning and to hopefully free Paldia. But he always sent replacements last second. Now we know that he’ll personally deliver the speech.”  
“Why would he?” Fate asked  
“To get the point across.” I said “To get people to fall in line. If you need something done right, do it yourself.”  
“Well we don’t know why, point is, we have to take advantage of this and capture him.” Eric continued. “Each of you will be in the crowd, once I give the ‘ok’ we will snipe the guards and you will catch him.”  
After the briefing, I talked to Paris seeing if he liked everything so far.  
“I’m still up for the idea for this.”  
“The mission or the Zodian Corps?”  
“Corps. I will go along with it, if I get those keys.”  
“You will. And if the Core is real, we’ll undo the mistake.” Paris nodded and walked away to get ready.  
“I hope we can.” He said as he walked off. 

Several hours later, I made it to the speech area. It was in front of a church. There was a giant stage. Behind it was a giant board promoting the Ark Raiders. Everyone was there. Lots of booing, and yelling. Everyone didn’t like Wolf. But they hated the problems here even worse. Lots of jobs laid offs, terrible police force, everything. I didn’t bring my hood cause I thought it would give me away. I saw Wolf up on stage  
“Fellow Citizens of Paldia! I, Eli Wolf the fourth, will purify this city. Of the evil and the deviants that walk among us! But most of all, Django Hunter!” I was confused. But then I remembered, he’s pious. “The so called, ‘Guardian’ walks among us. Responsible for the destruction of the five other cities!” What? This is bullcrap. That wasn’t me. It was the Son. He’s blaming all of this one me. “He will destroy our way of life!”  
“Kill Hunter!” “Kick him out of your city!” A couple people said. This guy is controlling their minds. Giving them lies. Turning everyone against me. At least no one recognized me as I entered. “But trust me good people. From the protection of the Ark Raider and Darkwatch enforcers, trust in me. And we will lay all of your problems to rest!”   
Wolf was an old man. He had no problem with motor actions like most old people, but he had that whole ‘evil plan’ thing going on. The audience cheered. I can’t believe they are buying this. It’s like their anger disappeared all because he made promises. Promises he won’t keep. I found Callen inside the crowd. Pretending to cheer.  
“Yea, yea. Go Wolf.” He said in a monotone voice.  
“So what I miss?” I asked  
“Will what Wolf basically said, is that you’re the devil.”  
“Oh, perfect.” I saw a woman up on stage standing beside Wolf and two other men. “Who are they that?” I asked Callen  
“The girl is his general of the Ark Raiders.” He said  
“She obviously slept with him to get the position.” I said  
“She’s also his daughter”  
“Well… this is awkward” I said. Fate was talking to me to my ear piece  
“What, a woman has to sleep with a guy to get a powerful position?” She asked  
“No, its just she looks too—“ I tried to explain  
“Stop right there, Django.” Fate said. Callen chuckled  
“Yea, Yea. Keep laughing.” I said  
“The man on the right is his banker for Darkwatch, Michel, The other is the captain general of Darkwatch army, Jose” Callen explained  
“And lastly,” Wolf said finishing up his speech “We will deal with the most terrifying problem in this city; the freaks!”  
“Is he talking about those from the swamp?” Callen asked   
“We will hunt them down, and with God as my witness, we will destroy them all!” the audience cheered. But one guy yelled “Look! The freaks!” He yelled as he pointed to the top of the church. It was those things from the swamp. Everyone looked. Wolf walked off stage. I saw him whisper something to the solider. I couldn’t make it out.  
“Crap, the operation is ruined! Guys, get him now!” Eric yelled through our ear pieces. The monsters attacked. Attacking everyone in sight. The Ark Raiders were fighting back. I tried to get through the people running away, I ran up to the stage  
“Devil’s coming through” I said as I took out my sword and stabbed one of the monsters in the back. It was trying to eat a woman. “Quick, run! Get out of here!” I yelled. More monsters came. They came after me. I fought back. One launched its claw at me but I dodged and hit his legs. He collapse and I finished him off.   
“It’s the devil!” Someone yelled.   
“He’s fighting the Tainted!” Someone else yelled. I guess they called these things the Tainted. I hit another monster in the head. One got on me. A fire missile hit him and he died. Paris was there.   
“Thanks.” I said  
“No problem.” Another fire wave was launched at them. This time, it was Fate.  
“You boys can thank me later.” She said.   
“Django, Wolf is run for it!” Callen said through our ear piece  
“Go, we’ll deal with them.”  
“Thanks guys.” I said. I saw Wolf get in a limo. He was trying to escape. I couldn’t catch him on foot, but I had an idea. I saw a fallen telephone wire leading to the roof. I used my jet-boots to jet myself on it. The speed was amazing. This increased the odds of catching up to Wolf. I used the jet-boots to get over the roof tops super fast.   
I eventually, landed on the limo. I jumped to the sun roof of the car and saw Wolf.   
“Hello, Wolf. Name’s Django. Time you and I had a little chat.”   
“I have nothing to say to you… freak.” That irritated me. I focused my aura to my hand. To get him to reason.  
“Ok, I was going to do this nicely, but you ruined that. Time to cut the crap. Your coming with the Zodian Corps. Now.” Wolf just laughed. Like he knows he’ll get out of this.  
“Boy, if I were you, I’d be more worried what’s behind me.” I was confused until I did look behind me. I saw a helicopter incoming. The cockpit hit me upside the head and I landed in the street. If I wasn’t an Aura Reader, That would have killed me.   
“OWWWWWWWW! God that hurt!” I said. The helicopter hovered a several feet away from me. Out of it came two hooded men. “What the…” One of them launched a lightning tornado at me. “What the hell!?” I read it and got rid of it. These guys are Dark Readers. The other read some metal in the area and launched it at me. I made an earth barrier and blocked it. Suddenly, the man plowed through the barrier with metal drills. I dodged out of the way. The Dark Reader behind me launched a lightning strike at me. I rolled out of the way and it hit the other guy. He tried again, but I read the nearby car and hit him with it. The Metal Reader tired to kill me, but a fire missile interfered. Fate came to my rescue.  
“I can’t leave you alone for five seconds without you pissing someone off.” Fate said  
“Love you too, babe.” I said. She chuckled  
“Dark Readers?”  
“Yep”  
“How?”  
“Don’t know, ask questions later.” The Metal reader lifted the car off of the lightning reader and threw it at us. “Look out!” I tired to use the Aura Grip on the car. Fate fired more heat waves at him. He lost focus and I threw the car at him. The car exploded. But the Metal Reader read the metal around the car. And made armor for himself. “You’re kidding”   
“It does look cool.” Fate said  
“When can I learn that?” I asked. The Metal Reader launched metal missiles at us. I used my new slow mo grenades and threw it in front of the missile. It slowed down. Giving Fate enough time to read it and throw it at the Lightning reader. He read the air to launch himself up. I threw some fire missiles and knocked him out.   
“You know, having metal armor doesn’t protect you from fire!” Fate said as she fired a massive fire beam. It heated up the man. He must have died from heat exhaustion. The helicopter fired missiles at us. I used my shielding technique and the missiles fired back at him. Destroying it. “Django, what happened?”   
“He got away. That helicopter hit me and those two came out.”  
“You ok?” She held me head. I let her hold it   
“I’m fine.” I kissed her. “I’m stubborn, remember?”   
“But now I lost our chance to free this place.”  
“Django, report” Haidi asked  
“He got away. Ambushed me with a helicopter and Dark Readers.”  
“Dark Readers?”  
“Must be part of Darkwatch. Dark Readers, Darkwatch. Why didn’t I see it before?” I walked to the lightning reader.  
“Where they come from? The Dark Readers are supposed to be gone.” I looked at the lightning reader’s face.  
“No. Well, the real ones are gone, but these are copies.”  
“How do you know?” Fate asked  
“Their faces. Dark Readers have black where the white area of the eyes are suppose to be.” This guy’s eyes were open. Marc once told me that when a person dies, closing their eyes, give them peace. I closed his. I also used the mind-link to see what he knew. All I saw was him in a chamber, and a switch was thrown. The energy transformed him into this. But the man that was at the switch…. was The Son.


	7. Paldia 13

We went back to ops and I explained everyone what happened. I told them that The Son was probably the leader of Darkwatch. Therefore, the leader of Paldia.   
“Wait, wait, wait. So The Son is the leader of Paldia?” Callen asked  
“Yeah. The mind-link never lies.” I told him.  
“You sure it was The Son?” Eric asked  
“Oh yea. Very sure.” I told him “Same gauntlet, same robe, and that same evil look” Same everything. I never forget a face.  
“Just who is this ‘Son’?” Paris asked  
“Logan’s son” I told him. When I said that, he widened his eyes and cocked his head. He’s hiding something. Does he know who the Son is?  
“Well, we lost our chance to get Wolf. Son or not, he was our only link to whoever’s controlling Paldia.” Eric explained  
“No.” Haidi said as she walked in.  
“God, it’s like you have super hearing” Callen joked  
“Even for an old woman.” Eric stupidly said. We all starred at him. Me, Callen, Fate, and Paris gave him the ‘you-dug-you’re-own-grave’ look   
“What was that, Eric?” Haidi asked. Dear God, Eric is so dead.  
“Uhhhhhhhhh nothing”   
“Good.” Haidi said. She wasn’t going to let him go easy. He’ll be spending his life excepting some revenge from her. That’s Haidi, make fun of her, you’ll get… well that’s the point, you don’t know what she’ll do. That alone is enough to drive a guy into insanity. “Anyway, we will have to go with plan C.”  
“What was plan B?” Fate asked. Haidi just ignored her question.  
“If we can’t take down Darkwatch’s control directly, we’ll have to do it how the Aura Readers do it: Silently.” Haidi explained  
“What do you mean?” I asked  
“We’ll take down they’re support. Wipe their money supplies, and take down their armies.”  
“How do we do that?” I asked. She tossed a flyer across the table. I picked it up and it was advertising a party. Not a boring formal party, not a kid’s party, one of those uhhh ‘grown up parties.’ “What is this?”   
“One of Darkwatch’s supports is money. Franco is their banker and handles all money for Darkwatch’s supplies. He’s also a party freak.” She explained “Kill him; wipe out their access to money.”  
“Won’t they get someone else to replace him?”  
“Not if we also destroy their entire bank.”  
“What?”   
“Franco holds parties all the time in his mansion southeast of here. That’s also where his vault for Darkwatch is.” She explained  
“A party like that must have heighten security” Paris said  
“But one of his former friends knows everything about his mansion.” Haidi said  
“Who?” Callen asked  
“Jonathon.” Haidi answered “He owns a lot of money to Franco. And is a great threat to him.” Pictures of him were up on the screen.   
“We shouldn’t help him” Paris said  
“Why?” Callen asked  
“He gambled into this, he has to find his way out.”  
“He’s our only way to get to Franco.” I told him. He just looked away. “Where is he?” I asked Haidi.  
“He was last seen at the observation deck at the beach.”  
“I’ll go.” I told them.  
“You sure, Django?” Fate asked  
“Better if I go alone; less attention that way. I’ll stay in radio contact with you tonight.”  
“We have one shot, Django. Don’t screw up.” Haidi said giving me one of her inspiring speechs.  
“Please, I’m an Aura Reader” I said 

I traveled to the observation deck by the beach area. It was a giant wooded deck overlooking the beach.   
“Where’s Jonathon?” I asked Ops through my radio ear piece.   
“He’s at the outer deck.” Haidi said. I saw an overweight man. He must have been in his fifties. There were also men with hoods; Darkwatch hoods. They had collapsible swords and guns like we do. They were arguing about something.   
“Please! I’ll have his money by next week! I need time!” Jonathon said  
“Sir Franco is tired of waiting. He wants your money now, since you don’t have it, we’ll have to beat it out of you.” A solider said. He signaled the other guys and the two of them grabbed him and started beating him up. I had to do something. I walked up behind him “You tired old man—“ I stopped him mid-sentence and used mind-link on him and threw him to the ground. The other two let go of Jonathon pulled out their swords. They weren’t Dark Readers. I used my aura grip to toss them aside. They barely put up a fight.

“You’re Jonathon?” I asked  
“Yeah…who are you?” He said  
“Friend of Franco’s.” I lied. I had to get his trust. And plus, not everyone here likes me.  
“Well that explains the Dark Reader mojo. But your not going beat me up too are you!?” He panicked.  
“No. I need to get into his mansion tonight for his party.” I tried to lie my way for him to give me answers  
“If you’re his friend, how come you can’t just go in yourself?” He asked. I quickly thought up an answer  
“Cause him and I got into a little fight. I want to sneak back into his house to get revenge.”  
“So you saved me so you can get a little revenge?”   
“I think it’s worth it.” He stood there thinking.   
“I don’t know…” Haidi started to talk to me through my ear piece.   
“Django, tell him you’ll help him pay his dept”  
“What?” I said quietly while Jonathon turned to think.  
“We’ll give him some money in a suitcase. Make sure it goes in the mansion and tell us when it does”  
“Why?”  
“Just do it. And make sure no one is in the mansion.”  
“Why…?”  
“Don’t worry” I don’t know what she’s planning, but now is not the time to think this over.  
“Alright.” I looked at Jonathon. “I’ll help you pay your dept.” He turned around with a surprised look.  
“Really!? Mother of God! You fight Darkwatch and you give out money! It’s the happiest day of my life!”  
“But we can’t stay here. They’ll come back. Do you know a safe area?” I asked. I couldn’t bring him to Ops. He could give the whole place away.   
“I do. Follow me.”  
I followed Jonathon. We went down from the observation deck and started walking to his safe house.  
“I can’t believe how all of this started.” He started telling me “Franco was my best friend, we would party all night, get laid several times, and laugh about it everyday. Ever since Darkwatch recruited him, he’s been a real asshole.”  
“Maybe karma is starting to affect you guys.” I told him  
“Maybe. Anyway, we’d gamble for fun and he’s starting to take it super serious! It’s like a grand and I’m about to get it but he’s just not patient.”  
We heard a yell from the rooftops. A missile came down on us. It missed thankfully.   
“Not again!” Jonathon said. Another missile fired. I used my aura grip to throw it back at them. I finished them with an aura missile.  
“Darkwatch really wants that money.” I told him.  
“See what I mean?” He said

We made it to his safe house. But it was guarded by Ark Raider and Darkwatch troopers.   
“Tell me you have another safe house.” I said  
“I have three, follow me.” I followed. We ran into some Ark Raider and Darkwatch troopers. The second safe house was guarded too. But the third wasn’t. It was a beach house. We made it in.  
“Oh thank God.” He said I heard a knock on the door. “Oh no! They found us!” He ducked under the table. I opened the door to see a Zodian Corps agent  
“Haidi said you need this.” He said. It was the suitcase she mentioned.   
“What ever you do, don’t take any of it.” Before I can ask why, he ran off. I went back to Jonathon with the suitcase. He was happy as a baby with a lollypop.  
“Oh God! You kept your word! Thank you!”  
“Go to his mansion and give this to Franco. Don’t take anything out of this.” I stretched my arm out to give it to him.  
“Actually, I don’t go to his mansion” I pulled back my arm  
“What?” I asked. He sighed.   
“I go to one of three places, and his men take the money to their commander of their squad and he gives it to him.” I could let him go alone, for all I know, he could take the money for himself or one of Darkwatch troopers could take it for themselves. I had a plan. I could follow him on the rooftops to see if he’ll deliver it.   
“Where is the nearest meeting place?”  
“At Sunrise place. Why?”   
“Go there. I’ll follow making sure they won’t kill you.”  
“How?”  
“I’ll be where no one can see me.”  
“Thank you, sir!”  
“But if you double cross me…”  
“I’m not an idiot. I see what you can do; I won’t be stupid and betray you like that.”

I went to Sunrise place. It was a giant outdoor mall. Stores everywhere, a man-made waterfall, and restaurants. I can see Jonathon walking with the suitcase toward some Darkwatch troopers.  
“Well, Jonathon, finally came to die?” The trooper said  
“I got the money”   
“Oh. Well that changes things. Follow me to our commander.” I followed from the rooftops. I had to get rid of scouts on the roofs quietly. It was hard to follow and kill them at the same time. The eventually made it to the church. Same place where Wolf gave his speech. “Yo, Tony, John here got the money.”  
“Really?” He said. “I’ll go inside to count it. Stay here.” He told them. I had a plan: I could kill him and switch clothes so I can sneak into the mansion. I sneaked up to the roof of the church. I went through the skylight. He didn’t see me, but he was directly below me. The place had a giant echo. I can hear him say “All here. Time to kill him I guess.” I quickly dropped down and used my mind-link on him. I removed his hooded robe and equipment and put it on. I put all of my stuff in my sling pack. I radioed Callen to come and get it. I took out the suitcase and went outside.   
“Good…” The trooper said. “Kill Johnny.”  
“No!” I told them. I hoped that they won’t see it’s me.  
“Huh. You’re lucky, Tony says you get to live. Get out of here.” Jonathon ran. He looked back at me. I guess he recognized my voice.  
“Lead the way, men.” I told them.   
“You don’t know where the mansion is, sir?” Crap.   
“Don’t you realize it’s a bad idea if I lead? An ambush could happen and I would die. I’ll stay in the middle so you can see my front and back. You see my point?” I told them. They looked at each other. I just completely made that up.  
“Ok come on.” He said

We walked to the mansion. We were at the gate. The mansion was huge. The gate lead into the drive way. It enters to turn in at the mansion and then exits the mansion or either into a parking lot.   
“We got Franco’s money” I told the gatekeeper.  
“Good. Go on in.” He turned to the other guards. “Make sure it goes in the vault.” I went in with the guards. Another guard walked up to him.   
“Wolf is wondering where Franco is.”   
“Wolf? He’s here?” I whispered. He stopped the other guys in my squard.  
“Hey! Don’t we go in?” They asked  
“High ranking officers only.”   
“This is bullcrap! Come on guys.” They left. I went in. The guards escorted me through the mansion. The place was huge. The lobby was huge. The house was empty though.   
“Where is everyone?” I asked the guards  
“They’re in the backyard. What’s wrong with you, you know how these things work” one guard said  
“Yeah, my memory of those parties are a bit hazy.” I told him   
“Amen to that!” The second said. These guys were funny. Shame I’m going to have to kill them.

They lead me upstairs to Franco’s office. It was a typically office. Desk, bookshelves, the whole deal. The only thing I can’t find is the vault.  
“Put it in the vault.” The guard said.  
“Where is it again?” I asked him. I had to make sure they weren’t on to me.  
“Did the hangovers really affect you that much?” He asked  
“I guess it did.” I joked. The guard sighed and walked over to the bookshelf and pulled a book. The bookshelf moved to the left and a vault door opened. Classic book-off-the-bookshelf trick. This guy is so predictable now.  
“There. You need help tying your shoes too?” The guard joked. The other laughed  
“Nice one, Steve!” He said. The vault was practically a walk in closet. I just remembered how am I going to destroy this place? I heard Haidi radio me through my ear piece. I tried to be a quiet as possible.   
“Django, you’re in the vault?” She asked  
“Yeah, I’m putting the suitcase in the vault now.”  
“Open the suitcase. There’s a hidden pocket in the ceiling of it.” I placed the suitcase on a shelf. I opened it and found the pocket. There was a bomb.   
“What the hell, Haidi, what is this!?” I tried to remain quiet.  
“Everything ok in there?” The guard asked.  
“Come on, man, I saw two hotties in the party and I’m about to get laid, come on!!” Said the other guard.  
“It’s a bomb, Django, It’s the only way to burn up their money. Activate it.”   
“Exactly when are you planning to do that?”   
“When you get out of the building. Give the signal, and we’ll activate it.” Haidi explained. Why wasn’t I told of this earlier? Why didn’t they include me on the plan? Whatever, I activated it and walked out. I’ll deal with Haidi later,  
“Finally, now go enjoy yourself.” The guard said as they escorted me to the party area.

I went out to the party area. It was on a cliff overlooking part of the city. People were half naked and a lot of making out was involved. I looked around for Franco. I couldn’t find him. I had to find and kill him before I give the all clear. Women wanted to ‘have fun’ with me. I had to refuse. Some had a he-must-be-gay look. I see Franco and Wolf arriving at the steps to the mansion. I could hear them talking.  
“He’s going to be pissed at you for doing this again.” Wolf said  
“Relax, Wolf. It’s only a few hundred dollars. They won’t miss it.” Franco said. He was an obese man. And half naked too wearing a Speedo. I really wish I didn’t remember that. “Besides, I’m in charge of you. You don’t have a say in this.” Wolf’s daughter was also here as his bodyguard. Franco had a pervy look at Wolf’s daughter. “Now why won’t your pretty daughter come on over and –“   
“My daughter will not take pressure from this… this!” Wolf was trying to find how to describe the party.  
“Epic party?”   
“Sin of God!”   
“This again.” Franco acted like this happened regularly. “Don’t be a grump. The master won’t be back for weeks. Enjoy yourself.” A couple of ladies started to hang off of him. Wolf and his daughter started to head back to their car.   
“Head back to warehouse, protect the wind key.” Wind key? So they have one of the keys. Interesting. But for now, Franco’s mine.  
He and his lady friends went to the far back. I walked up to him. I sensed a powerful energy. I saw he was holding on to one of the keys. Jackpot.   
“Yes? What is it?” He asked me.  
“You have something I want.” I asked  
“What are you—“ I interrupted him by using the mind-link. I accessed his memories. But I saw him. Standing in some white and black endless room. I also saw me. We were talking apparently. 

“So this is the end already. It happened quicker than I thought it would.”  
“All of this partying, drinking, gambling, and whoring lead you to this.” I told him.  
“What matter does it make? All my life, people made fun of me for my fat, one day I realized something. You could work out as much as you like to live longer but have no fun. Or you could live life and have the time of your life but die early.”  
“You always have to make a balance in everything.”  
“Too late to decide now. You got me before the master could. Go now, Aura Reader. Live your life.”

The mind-link ended. The girls ran away with panic. I grabbed the key he was holding. But just then, Darkwatch troopers surrounded me.   
“Haidi, how big is the explosion?” I asked her  
“Enough to wipe out half the mansion. If you’re outside, it shouldn’t harm you, why?”  
“Franco is dead. Activate it.”  
“Gladly.” She said. The mansion exploded. A giant fire swallowed half the mansion.   
“What happened!?”  
“The mansion blew up! It was him! Get him!” Some troopers said. They fired at me, but I used an earth barrier to block the shots. I launched the shield at them. I took out some guys. I needed to run for it. I used my jet-boots to dash to the edge of the cliff and use my wind thrusters to glide my way to the bottom. I outrunned them, got some new digs, new key. Everything went better than expected.


	8. Trust Issues

I headed back to Ops. I was super pissed of not being informed about the bomb. Was Haidi originally going to kill me? No, if she was, she wouldn’t have said ‘make sure no one is inside’. But why not tell me? I came in angry  
“Where’s Haidi?” I asked. Callen came up asking what was wrong.  
“What happened?” He asked. I got closer like I was challenging him.  
“The suitcase was a bomb and no one told me of the plan. Were you guys trying to kill me?” I explained. Callen had a dumbfounded look on his face. Like someone asked what was 2 + 2 was.  
“What? Django, Haidi came up with the idea as soon as you found Jonathon. We couldn’t fill you in cause if you knew as soon as we found out; you could’ve been surprised right in front of them.” Callen explained. Haidi must of heard us and came up to me.   
“What’s wrong, Agent Hunter?” Agent Hunter? Why so formal?   
“Why didn’t you tell me about the bomb?” I asked  
“I believe Callen explained it. We’re not going to stab you in the back, Agent Hunter.” Haidi said. “We need you, Hunter, why would we kill our best Agent?” Haidi had a point. But I’m always paranoid like that. Like people use me and tosses me aside like trash when done with me. The only person who doesn’t do that is Fate. Everyone else has.  
Eric whistled us from upstairs. “Everyone! We got a lead on Wind key!” He yelled. “Come up to Ops to discuss in an hour” That’s when I remembered something.   
“Oh right” I took out the key I got from Franco.   
“You found one?” Callen asked.   
“Yep.” I was about to absorbed until Callen stopped me.  
“Wait. Do that on carpet flooring at least.” Apparently, last time, I fell to the floor in a coma for a few minutes. I should get to a safe and soft place to absorb it.  
“Good point.” I said. I head to the carpet in the middle of the room. “Drag me to the couch when I’m in the coma” I told Callen. He nodded his head in agreement. I pasted my aura through the key. The energy absorbed into me. But it felt stronger than before. I feel to the ground. 

_I was in a wedding in Furno. My bride walked up and faced me at the altar. Her blue eyes were like the seas of Galen. After the wedding was the dinner. My best friend, Solo, came up to us and asked my wife if he can talk to me._  
“Go ahead, but I want him afterword.” She said. Solo took me to deck over looking the ocean. It was at a sunset and everything looked like a great future would be over the horizon. I was wrong.  
“So what you wanted to talk about?” I asked  
“Just that, when you were traveling the world, learning the elements, I was thinking…” He told me.  
“About?”   
“We have great power and everything. We should share it with the rest of the world.”  
“What are you saying?”  
“We could control everything. Bring peace. With you, we’ll be unstoppable.”  
“No.” I said.   
“What? Why? We always had that dream!”  
“We are doing just fine. The Draconians let us be on their world, we’d be betraying their trust.”  
“But there are so much fighting between them and the Saurian! Not to mention the humans! We could use the Core to change that. Only you have access to it”  
“No! The three tribes are meant to be just that. Three. And we will not use the Core! This is the last I want to hear about this.” As I left, I could feel Solo’s anger towards me. A storm is coming.

I woke up on the couch. I saw Fate sitting next to me. What was that vision I had? I had a similar one with the last key. Are these visions of my ancestor? It sounds like it.   
“How long as it been?” I asked.  
“Django!” Fate hugged me and slapped me across the face.  
“OWWW! What was that for!?” I asked  
“For coming back and not finding me! I thought something happened to you!” She said. Ever since the Logan thing, she’s always wondering if I’m okay.  
“I’m fine, Fate. And I’m sorry for not finding you when I came back.” I told her. “How’s talking to your dad?” Fate has been catching up with her father.   
“Fine.” She said. She put her arms around me and kissed my cheek. “An hour.”   
“What?”   
“You’ve been out for an hour.” An hour? When I absorbed the Water key, it was a few minutes. Does the coma go longer the more I absorb the keys? “Do you feel stronger?” I did feel slightly better than before.  
“Yea a little bit.” I said. I’ll find out next mission what power I got this time. Maybe another time control power like the time grenade? Eric whistled for us.  
“Time for next briefing! The wind key has been found.” And another new power for me.  
We went into the Ops center.   
“Wolf’s daughter, Natalie, is the leading general for the Ark Raiders. Our spies now know that she’s going to hide the Wind key in this ware house.” A picture of a warehouse showed up on the monitor. Natalie huh? So that’s her name. Sounds so innocent for a leading general.  
“Daddy’s little girl I’m guessing?” Paris asks.  
“Yep” Eric said. “You guys have to steak out the warehouse until she arrives with the wind key. Then take it and get the hell out.” Sounds simple. “I sent the location where you’ll stake out on your GPS. Don’t screw up.” He said.

The next morning, Callen woke me up. We fell asleep while on stake out at the warehouse.   
“Guys wake up!” He said. Looks like he stayed up the night.  
“What is it?” I asked.  
“The key is here.” He said. He handed me the binoculars and I looked down in the street. I saw Natalie there with a suitcase heading in the warehouse.   
“You all ready?” I asked Fate, Paris and Callen.   
We all went on top of the warehouse. We watched the scene from above. Callen took his time one the line leading here. She had short hair with yellow highlights  
“Here. Don’t screw up.” Natalie said at a soldier.   
“Yes, ma’am.” He said. She looked at us. As through she knew we would be here. Here cat-like eyes were staring at my soul, practically.   
“Looks like our guests are here.” She took out a remote detonator. “About time” she pressed the button and the ceiling exploded under our feet. Callen diudn’t fall cause he was stumbling across. We fell to the floor. Guns pointed us. “Well, well, well. Right on time.” She said. She was excepting us? “I know you, Django Hunter. Here to kill me? Franco’s death wasn’t satisfying enough?” She said.  
“We didn’t come here to kill you” I said. We were told to get the Wind key, not kill her. But I couldn’t tell her that.  
“Bull. You demons want blood and sex. That’s all you want.” Great, she’s pious like her father. “Kill them.” She grabbed the suitcase and ran. I used my aura repulse to send them flying. Fate and Paris were fighting off Dark watch troopers. There were a couple of Dark readers here and there. A Darkwatch trooper came up behind me and tried to stab me. I countered and used the mind-link on him. I felt a surge of energy as I did it. I began to realize my new power. I collect the energy from the guy I used the mind-link on and created a tornado. Paris was in awe.   
“New power?” Fate asked  
“Yep.” I said. Turns out, I can absorb the aura from people and use it to create a powerful attack.   
I chased down Natalie. I parkoured my way through everything. I finally caught her. I jumped on her and took the suitcase.   
“Get off of me you demon!” She yelled.   
“Let’s get one thing clear: I’m not a demon.” I thought I could discover the next location of the next key. So I used the mind-link. I saw the general of Darkwatch. He was at Wolf’s speech. He has one of the keys. I also saw her talking to a hooded man. I didn’t see his face   
“You have info for me?” Natalie said  
“Yes, they will be at the warehouse tomorrow.”   
“Good.” This wasn’t good. We have a traitor on the inside. I also saw her father talking to The Son.   
“Look after things while I’m gone.”  
“Going to find Hunter?”  
“Yes. Time to see why my father went to him for help…”   
The vision ended. Natalie was still alive. I didn’t want to kill her. If I killed her, it would only prove to Wolf and everyone that I am a demon.   
“Why won’t you kill me?” She asked  
“Because I didn’t come here to kill you. You were in my way.” I used the aura grip to unlock the suitcase. There it was. You’d think that if she knew we were coming, she would have switched the cases. “If you knew we were coming, why didn’t you switch suit cases?”  
“I thought you were going to kill me. I didn’t know you were after the key.”  
“Big mistake.” I said. I left here there.   
I ran back to the warehouse. All the Darkwatch troopers and Dark Readers were dead. Fate, Paris and Callen  
“Copies are nothing compared to the original” Paris said as he finished off a Dark Reader.  
“You ok, baby?” Fate asked.   
“I’m fine.” I said. I told them of what I discovered. They were shocked.   
“So that’s how they knew we were coming.” Paris said  
“Yes.”   
“What do we do?” Fate asked  
“We tell Haidi, she’ll know what to do.” I said  
“What?” Paris said “No, how do we know that she’s the traitor?”  
“Haidi has always been with us” Callen explained. He and Paris never got along. I’m always the one to make sure they don’t destroy humanity. “Haidi has no reason to betray us.”  
“Humans always betray each other for money and whatever else they can get.” Paris said challenging Callen.  
“Listen you son-of-a-“  
“Stop!” I said putting my sword between the two.   
“Haidi is the most loyal person to the Zodian Corps.” I told Paris. “She has no reason to. And if she was, we would’ve sensed her betrayal.” Let me explain: Aura Readers are empaths. We can sense aura fields; so therefore, we can see peoples’ emotions. If we knew someone that was betraying us, we’d see a distinct aura to know their nervous.   
Paris turned away from us. Fate seem sad from the fact her dad doesn’t like this situation. His anger towards humans is dividing us. He has to learn noot everyone is like that.  
“Come on. Let’s head back.” I said.


	9. Sewer Rat

When we returned to Ops, questions were flooding my head. Who is this traitor? Could it be someone we know? Eric? He was at the outpost when it exploded, he could have set it to explode to spread the keys. Cover evidence? But he’s a computer genius; he could’ve put a virus in the system by now. Either that or he’s waiting for the right moment. But he did send us on a good path with other missions. What about Haidi? Is all of this an uncover act? She is sneaky; she can hear what we say without us knowing; even when she’s in another country. She can be scary at times but that doesn’t prove anything. And she’s been with us for a long time… but that can change so fast. I’ll have to tell her about the traitor. Right now, she’s the only one I trust with this besides Fate, Paris and Callen.  
That’s when it hits me. Callen? What about him? He was a bit slow on the way to the warehouse. And he didn’t want to go with me to get the first key when we came here. And how did he really come to Ace city anyway? No, no, no it can’t be him. He hates Darkwatch with a white hot passion. But what if they promised him information about his past? I have to put myself in his shoes, if I were in his position, if that is the case, would I betray my friends to get information about my kind? About those visions I get? I don’t know what I do.   
The list of subjects can go on. Hell, it can be someone off-island. Whoever it is, I’ll find him. Now I’m aware of the traitor, and the fact we’re still alive will tip him or her off. I turn to Paris and Fate while I let Callen go on ahead. “Guys, if you see anyone acting out of the ordinary, let’s all met up and report what we know.” They nod in agreement. I don’t know if Callen is the traitor or not. Paris is obviously not the traitor; he hates Darkwatch more than Callen does. His pride won’t allow a team up with them. When I turn around, I see Haidi in front of us. I jolt myself back from the shock.  
“Report what, Agent Hunter?” I remember that she couldn’t be the traitor. She had a perfect chance to blow me up in Franco’s mansion. But what if she needs me alive?  
“Nothing.” I lied through my teeth. Haidi knew I was lying and stared me down.  
“Oh really?” She said  
“Just tell her, Django” Fate said  
“Fate, we don’t know if --“ She gave me a ‘trust me’ nod.  
“What did you find out?” She asks again.  
I sigh deeply. Here it goes, “We believe there is a traitor here.” I tried to bring my voice to a whisper.  
“What?” Haidi says. She seems surprised. We either came across her cover or she isn’t the traitor, I didn’t sense a super nervous emotion. When a person lies, their heartbeat changes. I can tell her heartbeat didn’t.   
“I used the mind-link on Natalie. She has information on the inside.” I tell her.  
“This could explain why we have so much trouble with Darkwatch.”  
“But who could it be?” Paris asks. I wish I knew Paris.  
“Don’t spread this around, keep an eye on everyone. At the end of the day, met up in the training room and discuss what you find.” Haidi explains.   
“But Haidi,” I tell her “Don’t let Callen know we’re looking for the traitor.”   
“You think he’s the traitor?”  
“I doubt it. But we don’t know for sure. I told him, Paris, and Fate of the traitor at the time. I just don’t know if we can trust him or anyone at this point.”   
“Understood; but Callen would never join those guys even with his dying breath.”  
“We can’t trust anyone” Paris adds.  
“Just continue like nothing happened.” Haidi says.  
We went to the desks area. We get our own desks for our meeting place. There are two desks, two couches, and behind us is a break room. Callen was one of the couches with a thinking face on.   
“So how do we catch the traitor?” He asks in a low voice. I’m not sure if we can let him in. But since he knows, we might as well tell him the usual and keep an eye out and tell us if he sees something. I didn’t tell him about the meeting with Haidi. “I’ll let you know what I find.” He lies back on the couch with his thinking face. “I need to rest and think about this.”   
“I think we all deserve a little rest.” Fate said. I then remembered the wind key I got from Natalie. Just then, Eric blew his whistle for the debriefing.   
We went up to the Ops center. We told Eric what happened, but not about the traitor. We don’t know if he is loyal to us or not. Then the topic of Natalie comes up.   
“I chased her down and got the wind key.” I hold up the wind key in front of everybody. It glowed a silver color and kept pulsing.   
“Good, with her dead, Ark Raiders will be crumbling soon.” Eric said. I don’t think they’ll like this next piece of information.  
“Um, yea, I didn’t kill her.” Everyone stared at me yelling “What!?”  
“What the hell, Django!?” Paris yelled. He walked towards me, looked down at me. “Do you realize what you did!?”  
“Yes I know.” I tried to keep myself calm.  
“Well why did you let her go!? She could be planning a counter attack on us because you let her go!”  
“I didn’t want to prove her point”  
“What point!?”  
“The fact we’re devils!” I began to yell. I hate it when people yell at me. I yell back but louder. “If I killed her, it only would have enforced the idea that we’re monsters!”  
“Who cares what we are? We are like Gods, if anything, they should be afraid of us. They’ll never like us.”  
“That’s what you think, Paris, if I did killed her, and it would only make Wolf right and if he is right and the public would side with him. We need the people on your side!”   
Paris paused. “Why beg help from the people that hate us?”   
“They won’t hate us if we prove we’re not demons.”  
Paris laughs at the idea. “Let me know how that goes.” He walked out. Fate just stared at me.   
“Django…”  
“I’m sorry, Fate. You know much I hate it when people get in my face.”   
“I know…” She said. Great, I think I pissed off the only person I trust now. Eric just tries to get himself together and think of a new plan.   
“Ok, ok.” He said “That aside, did you use the mind-link?” I looked at Haidi, she shakes her head. I know she means the traitor: that I can’t mention that right now.   
“I did. And I know who has the next key.” I told him. “The general of Darkwatch.” Eric’s eyes widened.   
“Oh crap…” He said  
“What’s the problem?” I ask  
“Baron Flint.” Eric slides something with his touch screen and an Image of him pulls up on screen. He was a well built man with long hair and wore armor. “The general of Darkwatch. He overlooks weapons and the soldiers. Good news: we know where he is. Bad news: He hides in the Fort Grand.” Fort Grand is at the western side of the city. It overlooks the beach and is huge. It’s like a city within the city. Cityception? “The place is huge with millions of guards.” He’s obviously kidding about the millions. “Do you know how hard it’ll be to get in there?” This was a tough one. I hold up the wind key. Maybe it’ll give me a power to help with this.   
“I’ll get back to you on that.” 

We get out of Ops and I go talk to Fate. She’s probably mad at me for fighting with Paris, speaking of Paris, I can’t find him anywhere.   
“You’re pissed aren’t you?” I ask her.  
“No.” She’s pissed. “I’m just mad that he can’t get along with you. I’m not pissed by your decision; in fact, I’m glad you didn’t turn into a murder and kill her.”  
“I don’t think anyone likes my decision” I say.  
“We can get by on this, Agent Hunter.” I turn to my left to see Haidi.   
“Well at least two people don’t hate me.” I say.  
“In terms of official business, that would be a terrible choice.”  
“Thank you for making me feel terrible, Haidi.”   
“But in terms of your humanity, it was a great choice to make.” She finishes. “This business is not an easy one, Django. But we do what we must. But you’re right, if you did kill her, the city would be against us. And that’s the last thing we need.”   
“We’ll find another way to get rid of the Ark raiders.” I turn to my left to see Callen.   
“Thank you, you guys.” I realized that these guys are my true friends. Callen could’ve just leaved and nap if he was a traitor. But he stayed here to help me with this. In that moment, I decided wither or not to tell him about the meeting. I now know what Haidi meant by this is a hard job; she meant you have to make the right choices; about what to do in a situation and who to trust. And right now, I trust Callen. “Callen, about the traitor situation, we’re going to meet in the training room in the end of the day to see if we see anything.”   
“Did you guys set up that plan without me on purpose?”   
“I’m sorry, but anyone here could be the traitor. And I try to tell myself that it isn’t you. How you hate Darkwatch and would never join them unless it meant something about your past. I’m sorry; I’m always paranoid about my friends stabbing me in the back.” Callen just looked at me for a while. “I know.”  
“What?”  
“Fate told me how you never trust anyone but her. How you think everyone’s out to get you because of how you were treated.” I looked at Fate   
“You told him?”   
“Just because he asked why you’re so distant from us.” She said. I never thought about that till now. Was I always distant from everyone? Even Uncle Marc?   
“Point is, thanks for seeing reason.” He said. We fist bumped.   
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” I hold out the wind key “Time for a nap.” I go to the training room. It’s like a gym. In one room, there are machines that are like leading chairs. There were computers attached to them. Haidi told me that was a virtual training machine. Like the one Marc had. It trains agents in several situations. They used Aura Reader technology to make them. Fate and Callen came with me so they can move me to the couch so I can at least lay on something soft.   
“Ready?” I ask them. They nod. I pour my energy into the key. The surge was much more powerful than before, and more painful. I fell to the floor with another vision.

_A year has past since that night. I heard news of Breez under siege. When I went there, it was infested with Aura Readers. But their aura was black. I sensed Solo had something to do with this. I enter the city hall and find Solo at the throne.  
“What are you doing, Solo!? Why attack our own city?”  
“How dare you, an Aura Reader, who doesn’t follow his race’s destiny. I must have control of everything if I want to rid Vahi of power of Pangaea.”  
“This isn’t the way to do it! To rule our own kind!?”  
“It is the only way! I refuse to let Vahi control everyone else like their nothing. You’re either with me, or against me.”  
“Don’t do this, Solo, don’t challenge me.” He stayed silent. “It’s over.” I walked away; determined to stop Vahi my own way. Solo was angry with my ’betrayal’. He fired his Aura Beam at me. I read it like it was nothing. I launched a wind tunnel at him. He got knocked back. I used the elemental overload and destroyed the palace. I used an earth pillar to hold Solo in place. “This is your first warning, Solo, even one step out of line will result in your end.” I walked away. Our friendship was now cut. We haven’t spoken for several more years. Solo didn’t do anything with his followers in those years. But I sensed he was preparing something._

I woke up on the couch again. Apparently, I was out for an hour and an half. I looked around and everyone was in the office deciding our next plan.   
“So what power you have this time?” Callen asked me.   
“I’ll go to the training room and find out.” We all went to the training room for our meeting. It’s usually the time of day where no one is here. I told everyone about the visions I get from the keys.   
“Hm, that might have been your ancestor. His energy must be in the keys.” Paris explained. He seemed that his anger cooled down. But I still sensed some left. He kept eyeing Callen. He must think that he’s the traitor. They never seem to get along. Just then Haidi entered.  
“So does anyone have anything to report?” She asks  
“I noticed how Maggy kept looking back at me for billions of times.” Callen said  
“Actually, Callen there’s another reason why she does that.” Fate said  
“Like?”   
“I’ll let you figure it out.” She said cracking a smile  
“What is it!?”   
“It’s a girl thing.” Looks like Callen has an admirer in the building.  
“I didn’t noticed anyone’s aura signature changing.” Paris said.  
“Well we know Django was absorbing the key.” Haidi said. Since I was in a coma, I had a reason for not paying attention. But I didn’t notice changes in aura signatures like what Paris said.   
“Elli from upstairs was being more of a bitch than usual.” Fate said  
“She’s always like that.” Callen said  
“Yea, but it is more that she usual is.”  
“She just hates the fact she’s not the youngest person in the Zodian Corps anymore.” Fate was taking in this moment like she won an Oscar.  
“So no one found anything strange?” Haidi asked. We all shook our heads. “Well no one said we’d find anything in a day. From now on, we’ll keep our sections and missions private. Eric will make sure no one else knows about our missions. That way, if he’s the traitor, we’ll know it’s him.” Haidi’s plan seemed like a good one. “But everyone be on your toes.” She dismissed us.   
“Django, I’m going up to our room to rest, you coming?” Fate asked me  
“No, I’m going to stay here and see what my new power is. I’ll see you in a few.” I told her. I kissed her on the cheek. I stopped Callen. “Callen, do you know how to work those machines?”   
“Yea, come with me and I’ll show you.” We went into the Virtual Training room. There were chairs attached to computers. Callen explained to me that these are a smaller version of the training ring Marc had. He can change the environment around me, make enemies appear, even give other people powers to mess around with. I hooked myself to the machine.   
“This seems like very advanced stuff here. I expected Japan to get this stuff in like 20 years.” I told Callen. I was amazed by how hi-tech these things were.   
“Thanks to Aura Reader technology, it makes things easier on us.” Callen explained. I found myself in an empty white room. “Do you have any special requests for a training ground?” Callen said through some speakers.   
“Just some buildings. Lets see if I got something that’ll make me faster.”   
“Got it.” White pillars started coming out of the ground. Acting like buildings. I began instantly. I focused an earth pillar below my feet to launch me higher than I thought I would.   
“Whoa!” I landed on a building.   
“Nice. That’ll help during a chase.” I spend some time fooling around with the earth launch. I felt like I had another I want to test.  
“Callen, do you have anything to test reaction times in here?”   
“Let me see…” Callen paused and I hear beeping on his end. He must be looking for a situation to use. “Ahh, here we go. Get ready.” He activated the program. Nothing happened, but I sensed a missile incoming. I quickly turned around and launched an aura push. Callen said I was super fast. But to me, it was like time slowed down. I think the wind key increased my preflex. After dodging bullets and missiles like the Matix, We stopped after a while. Callen helped me out of the machine. My eyes started to hurt so I rubbed them. “Those visors are murder on the eyes, huh?”   
“Yep.”  
“You’ll get used to it. Now it’s getting late. I’m going to bed. Night.”  
“Night.”

I went up to my room. This building poses as an apartment to us. Some Agents have their own rooms. They only get them if they are homeless or too young. The Zodian Corps accepts everyone. No matter on age, race, religion, man, women, or anything. As long as they have a great skill set. Fate and I have our own room where we share. I went in and she was on the News channel. The reporter was reporter on the current crisis on Paldia. The homeless rate is increasing slightly. And more people are losing their jobs. Not only that, but Ark Raiders are punishing who they think are ‘deviants’. All of this sickens me.   
But there is some good from this, with the death of Franco by a ‘gas leak’ Darkwatch was forced to cut back. At least we did one good thing. Something else was on through. Footage of me from a cell phone recorded me attacking Natalie. Fate sees me taking the Wind key and walking away. You can hear the audio too.   
_“Why won’t you kill me?”  
“I didn’t come for you, I came for this.”_  
Fate looked at me. I don’t know what type of face she made. But she was proud that I didn’t kill her. She grabbed my hand to sit me down. We moved up on the bed and laid back and watched while she was holding on to me. Maybe the fact I didn’t kill her will win the people on my side. But I did attack what they thought was a woman. They might have thought it was a mugging. That won’t win them over though.  
“With this strange attack, we ask everyone at the scene what they thought happened.” The reporter said.  
“Why would he attack that woman? God, Wolf was right, he is a demon”  
“That woman was Wolf’s daughter. They caused hell for us, I wish she died.” Most of them went like that. All of these were bringing me down. So what? Paris was right? That all humans crave death and destruction? And is Wolf right? To them, I’m a freaking demon. They are as pissed at me as Eric and Paris were. But one woman said something that made everyone else sound like douches.  
“Why would a man want to kill a woman? I think it’s a good thing he didn’t kill her. It proves he’s not as evil as Wolf is.” Maybe through listening to her, people will have a reason to be on my side. “I saw it happen, she was with Ark Raiders and Darkwatch in the warehouse. I saw the Django spying on her. There was a big fight and she escaped with something. He chased her down and grabbed the suitcase and got that glowing thing. So he had a reason. I just don’t know what.” The woman finished saying. That lightened me up a little. Maybe people will see this woman was right and side with me. The reporter was about to switch to something else. Fate turned to me.  
“Everything ok?” She asks me.  
“I feel like we’re not doing any impact on this place. People are still dying and we’re just sitting on our asses doing nothing.” I told her.   
“Baby, when you defeat The Son, everything here and all other cities will change.” Right. I forgot about him. But am I powerful enough to beat him? With my upgraded preflex, I might have a chance, but I’m still very doubtful.  
“But can I beat him?” I ask Fate.  
“You can! You’re my guardian.” She rested her head on mine. God, without Fate, I’d be so lost with myself. We kiss each other good night and went to sleep.  
I was thinking how to get the next key. I know Fort Grand. Marc took Fate, Blake, and I there when he was teaching us parkour. I tried to remember what was there. It was a huge place. It was abandoned at the time though. It overlooked the ocean with its ramparts, watchtowers, and armory --. Wait a sec. There was a small courtyard and it the center was a sewer lid. I remember being on the beach there was a pipeline. Did that pipeline lead inside? This was something I should tell the others in the morning.  
But that beach… There were good times there. I remember seeing Fate in her swimsuit. She liked the water. I stayed behind because I never liked the beach. I just like the breeze it made. She did come back toward our spot and sat with me.   
“Why won’t you go in the water with us?”  
“I don’t like swimming”  
“Come on…”  
“No.” She kicks some sand on me. “Hey!”  
“Now you have to come with us to rinse.”   
“…Fine.”  
That was actually one of the few times I went in the water. Now, I find it funny that she’s a Fire Reader and likes the water. Contradicting much? I hold on to Fate while I slept. For some reason, the nightmares I used to get all my life seem to go away with Fate next to me. Sleeping is much better when you have someone to cuddle with.


	10. Callen's Turn

The next morning, I went to the Ops center downstairs to tell Haidi and Eric my plan. It was a good plan apparently. But the place is still crawling with Darkwatch and Ark Raiders. Paris, Fate and I can’t take them all. We’ll need an army.  
“Luckily, I know just the team to help us.” Eric said. He typed some keys and a picture of a man, probably 50 or so, showed up on screen. “Meet Kevin Connors. He leads a rebellion against Darkwatch and the Ark Raiders. He has a lot of men on his rebellion. If we can get to join us, we might have a chance against the whole fort.”  
“We both have the same goal. Maybe because of that, they’ll join us.” I heard Callen and Fate come in.   
“Even if we have the same goals, they still might want to join us.” Haidi said. She was right. The Aura Readers and Dark Readers have the same goal. But each side takes a different path on getting there. But hopefully, this won’t be the case.  
“But I think I know how to get their trust.” Eric said. He typed even more keys again. This time, a woman, probably around Callen’s age, showed up on screen. She had curly light brown hair. I didn’t know at the time, but Callen was staring at the picture like he was in a trace. “Meet Nami. She’s Connors’ daughter. She’s been missing since earlier this week.” Callen eyes started to widen as soon as he heard that. “Police have been looking, but no luck. However, an hour ago, they found a lead, that she might have been kidnapped and was sent into the swamp.”   
“We’re going.” Callen said right as soon as Eric finished. I guess Callen has a weakness for women in distress. “Sent us the location of the lead.”  
Eric was caught off guard for a second. “Um, ok.” He pressed a few buttons. “Ok, it’s sent to your GPS.”  
“Come on, Django, you and I are going.” Callen said. Fate thought that he wanted to save her and be her prince or something.   
“I’ll be back, Fate” I told her.  
“Don’t die.” She said back.

We went down south at the edge of the swamp.   
“So why are you so determent to save this girl you don’t even know?” I asked Callen  
“I just don’t like kidnappings, ok?” He said. “Wait do you hear that?” We stopped and listened. We heard “Help” coming from the edge of the swamp. “Let’s go!”   
We ran towards the sound.  
“They’re here! Fire!” Said an Ark Raider soldier. We dodged the missile. But they were expecting us. Callen obviously didn’t tell them. Maybe Eric? I’ll have a word with him as soon as we get back.   
I countered with a fire missile and burned the soldier alive.   
“Come on!” Callen said. We saw the girl at the boardwalk. She was being hanged form her wrists. There were torches set up. Almost like this was a tribute.   
“Help me! Someone! Anyone!” Nami yelled.  
“Don’t worry, we’re coming!” Callen yelled back. We ran towards. I head growling coming from the water. No. Not these guys again.   
“Callen! Wait!” I tried to warn him.   
“What!?” Next thing I knew. A Tainted monster jumped him. It was on him. I used my aura grip to get him off. More showed up. Callen took out his dual blades. One monster came running at us. Callen blocked his attack with one sword and stabbed him with the other blade. He fought them off better than the last time we faced these. I used my powers to keep the Tainted at bay. My new upgraded preflex helped out a lot. Time slowed down as they attacked, and I had time to counter.   
When the wave of Tainted stopped, I took this time to shoot the rope holding Nami. Callen caught her as she fell.   
“Thanks…. Mr…” She said  
“Callen. Name’s Callen.” Callen said. They looked at each other for some time.  
“Yeah, don’t thank me or anything.” I said. Now I know what it like is to be a third wheel. “Where’s you’re father?” She snapped out of her trace with Callen.  
“Oh, um, this way.” She said as she led the way.  
“Callen, you dog.” I told Callen as she left. We both followed Nami. She called her father to tell us where to meet. He told her to meet her at the local park.  
“I need you two to escort me there. Ark Raiders will still come after me.”   
“We know.” I told her  
“Then why are you two helping me?” She asked.  
“Ask Callen that”  
“I just can’t stand a pretty girl like yourself being kidnapped.” He said.  
“Well alright prince charming, you scored yourself some points.” She said. Honestly, we were here to get her father to join us in our plan. Well that’s part of the problem. I don’t want her tortured by Ark Raiders. But I think saving her is Callen’s reason. But why was she being hanged by the boardwalk? Was it an offer from the Ark Raiders to keep the Tainted from invading? Whatever it is, an offer won’t happen on our watch. “You’re Django Hunter aren’t you?”  
“Yes. And no, I will not kill you and eat you for dinner. Whatever Wolf said about me is completely false.” I told her.  
“I know, my father hates Wolf too. That’s what you two have in common. He’s not afraid to fight the Ark Raiders or Darkwatch.” Nami explained. Just then a missile fired again.   
“Damn it, do you realized what you done!? You’ll kill all of us, devil!” Said the Ark Raider Soldier. I shot him down.  
“These guys really want you, don’t they?” Callen asked  
“I don’t know why.”  
“Maybe they want you for other reasons.”  
“Well they must be homosexuals, because they done nothing of the sort to me.”   
We made a shortcut through the alley way, on the way, we encountered more Tainted. They must be getting into the city. Did saving Nami really doomed the city? We enetered the alley and saw a fork in the road. From one end, we saw another Tainted, from the other side came a missile launcher. We turned to where the missile came from and saw some of the rebels. They were hurt from the blast.   
“You have to help them! They fight for my dad.” Nami said. I went to them and used my aura to heal them. They quickly recovered fast.   
“Wow, thanks.”   
“From what I heard, you ate babies, not save people.” Said most of them.  
“No, like you, I hate Wolf too.” I told them.  
“Nami!” Said the third rebel.   
“Help us escort her to her father.” I asked them  
“Sure, he’s over here.”   
The rebels took us to a small statue of a hooded man. We saw her father walking around the statue pacing.  
“Nami!” Her father said. They hugged.  
“The Ark Raiders kidnapped me and tried to feed me to the Tainted!” She told him.  
“I knew the Ark Raiders were doing this, but not my family” He said. After hearing that, he daughter backed away.  
“What? You knew about this?” Nami asked  
“Now, Nami, I’ll explain later.”  
“No! explain now!” She demanded  
“Now, Nami –“ He paused and looked at me and Callen. “Uh, Nami? Who are they?”  
“They saved me.” She said. She then went up next to Callen. “They can do things you never seen. Especially him.” She said pointing to me. Connors studied me and Callen.  
“The Zodian Corps. And the devil of Ace city.” He said. That ticked me off.  
“Whoa, I am not the devil. Listen, you and the Zodian Corps have one thing in common. We both hate Wolf and Darkwatch. So please help us rid the city of Wolf and Darkwatch.” I tell him. While he’s thinking of my deal, we hear a massive roar. We turn in the roar’s direction and saw a Tainted with a scorpion like body. It had sharp legs that looked like swords at the end and claws. Its tail had a sharp bone at the end of it. Whatever the Ark Raiders were offering Nami to, that’s it.  
“Guys, go. I’ll deal with this thing.” I tell them.  
“Ok, I think you proofed your point. But that thing is too damn big even for you!” Connors told me  
“Yeah, yeah. Just go!” I yelled at them. They ran for it so I can deal with this… Scorpic. 

Scorpic raised its tail and shot an energy beam at me.   
“It shoots lasers from its tail!? Are you kidding me!? That’s so cliché.” I said. I fired earth, fire and ice missiles at it. It manages to survive the attack and dashed at me. It uses its claws to hold me up in the air. I used an aura push to get it off of me. It dashes towards me again. I used my new earth launch to dodge his dash. He hits his head on my pillar I left behind. I fire a few more missiles.   
The battle went on for a while. After I defeated it, scorpic turned into a giant cloud of smog and its body rotted away.   
“Swamp monsters, Man-made Dark Readers, and giant scorpions. For once, I’m not the freak of this town.” I said. Connors contacts me through my radio.  
“Look… I don’t trust you. You and your deal you’re giving. But you my support. What’s the plan?”  
“We attack Darkwatch’s support. We killed off their money supply, so now we’re going to kill off they’re general. Then, their armies will weaken.”  
“That’s a good plan, but what about Wolf?”  
“I’ll deal with him personally.”  
“We’ll meet at our HQ to discuss the plan for the Fort. And Django, is it? Thanks for saving my daughter. Even if you did save her to gain my trust.”  
“No problem. And even if you didn’t have a rebellion, we would have saved her anyway.”


	11. Law and Order

I headed to Connor’s HQ. It was begin the movie theater by Triangle way. When I went to the alley way behind, I was looking around for the base, until I heard a whisper from a building. “Psst. Here” I saw a guy in cameo clothing. “Your Django right?” I had no idea why he was whispering. I sensed no Darkwatch or Ark Raiders nearby.   
“Why are you whispering?” I asked him.  
“So no one will hear us.” He said back  
“No one’s here. Just let me in.” I said in a normal voice.  
“Fine. Way to ruin the fun.” He said as he opened the door for me. I was taken upstairs to a giant office. In the center was a table with a map of Paldia. Connor, Nami, and Callen was there.   
“So that’s our plan.” Callen finishes. Are they talking about my plan to get into Fort Grand? Everyone stops and stares at me.  
“Well then, you don’t have to stop on my account.” I said. “What I missed?”  
“We’re telling them about your plan to get into Fort Grand” Callen tells me. So I was right.   
“But there’s something we have to do first.” Connor says  
“And what’s that?” I ask. Connor points to the map.  
“There. Darkwatch is parading around captured police to show off their dominance.” Capturing police officers? That’s a new low. “They’re parading them here.” Connor points to the map. “The ones they’re parading are just a fraction of what they have back at the Holders.” Holders are where Darkwatch put the Police officers in. Without them, there’s no way of bring order to Paldia. “We have to get them out. If we do, then some order will be brought back to Paldia.” Connor wraps up. Darkwatch is practically slapping the citizens’ hope of restoring Paldia in the face. I’ll have to slap them right back  
“I’ll do it.” I say. Everyone stares at me. “Sent me the location of that corner, and I’ll free the police and the ones in the Holders.” I walk out. Another reason why I’ll kill Wolf.

I made it to the corner of where the parade will be. I sit at the corner of a building waiting. My plan is to attack from the air. I hear a buzz on my radio and I answer it.  
“Django, are you doing what I’m think your doing.” Paris said.  
“You mean having the rebels joining us and me freeing the police force of Paldia? Then yes.” I said. It’s been a while since I talked to Paris. What has he been up to?   
“It’s a mistake bring them into this.” He says  
“We need their firepower to get into Fort Grand.”   
“I know about your plan. But they will get in the way”  
“I know what I am doing, Paris! I’m sorry, but you have no say in this!” I hanged up on him. Why does he have to be so stubborn? I’m doing everything I have to do to get to the Core… But is that a good idea? I remember the vision I recently had: where my ancestor refused to use the Core. Of course he didn’t want to use it because of that Solo guy. But is there another reason? I get another call. I expect it to be Paris. “Paris, for the last time, I don’t care what you say! I’m trusting them!”   
“Uhh, who’s Paris?” I hear Connor’s voice.   
“Oh sorry, I thought you were someone else.” I said. I hope he didn’t catch that last part.  
“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, they’re coming now.” I see a group of large semis. They must be holding the Police. I also hear Wolf on the speakers making a speech about how useless the police are. Hearing his voice makes me want to kill these guys already.   
“You know, packing a lot of heat, humiliates the police.”  
“It’ll be worth it. Once they’re free, order can start in Paldia again.”  
“Here they come. I’ll call you later.”   
I ready myself. When one of the trucks is below me, I jump with an aura drop. I focus my aura to my feet and land with a shockwave. I fight off the Darkwatch soldiers and the ones at the other trucks. While I’m doing this, I can hear the police talking.  
“It’s the demon!”  
“Get them, Guardian!” Some say.  
Once I get them out, I take out the drivers and release the cages. The officers come out and stare at me.   
“Darkwatch and Ark Raiders have had their hold on you for too long!” I begin to say. I don’t what’s going on. I never spoke like this in front of people. “They parade you around, stealing any kind of hope away from Paldia’s people!” I realized why I’m doing this, because I can’t stand to see The Son or Wolf win. But this. This will slap Wolf across the face. I will enjoy that so much. That alone is pumping me up to say this. To tell the people what I think and get it through their skulls. “Wolf will pay for this. For everything he’s done! Protect this city from ‘the evil of the devil’? The only evil here is him and Darkwatch controlling this city!” The officers cheer. “Now! Are you guys ready!? Ready to free your friends in the Holders and bring order back to Paldia!?” They cheer even louder. “Grab a rifle of the Darkwatch! And we’ll storm the holder.” I say. I never thought I see myself doing this: leading the charge.

We made it to the gates of the Holders. It’s like one of the mansions by the swamp. I use the aura push to knock down the gates. To my surprise, they open fire at us. The officers brace for impact. But thanks to my telekinetic shield, I protected them in time. “Of course, you’re superhuman.” says one of the officers. I launched the bullets back at the Ark Raiders.   
“Free your friends!” I yell at the officers. They run toward cover and fire at the Ark Raiders. Throughout the battle, I command the officers and throw and launch grenades and missiles. We fight our way to the mansion. I burst through the door and see all of the police officers rise their heads. At the site of being rescued brings great joy to their faces. I use my aura grip to release the locks. We release the imprisoned officers and escort them to the nearest police station. The officers give me their thanks. Their families come up and hug them, so glad to see their fathers, brothers and other relatives alive. The family members hug, shake my hand and thank me for rescuing them. 

After a while of saying goodbye, I make my way to the rooftops and head by to Ops. I didn’t realize it, but today, I became a leader. I lead a small army of police officers to save their friends. I bought hope to this place once again. Soon it’ll be free.


	12. Storming the Fort

I made it back to Ops. I remembered about when Callen and I were rescuing Nami, we were ambushed, they knew we were coming. The only people who knew of our mission were Callen, Haidi, Paris, Eric, Fate and I. I stormed into the Ops center and Eric and Haidi were at the computers. “Hey, dude, how was the run up here?”  
“Are you a spy for Darkwatch?” I asked right away.  
He had a puzzled look on his face. “Wait. What?”  
“You heard me. We were ambushed, they knew we come. No one else knew about our mission.” I explained  
“What? And you automatically point to me?” Eric said. “Django, I’m not working for Darkwatch! I’m on your side!”  
“The outpost, how’d we really know that the Ark Raiders were really there? How do I know that you haven’t talked to them through a secret channel? You’re in the perfect position to give them our locations.” I explained. Eric typed some buttons and a list on one of the monitors came up.   
“I’ve been here the whole time. This is the history of who I was talking to” There was a list of different Zodian Corps squads. He does have to direct other squads. But his main one is ours. He was directing us in the right direction. He pushed more buttons and footage from the outpost when I came to Paldia came up. He was keeping the door barricaded when Ark Raiders were trying to break in. They took cover when they broke through. The whole place then blew up because of the gunfire and the energy of the keys.   
“What more proof do you need?” Well now I feel like a douche.   
“I’m… sorry.”  
“Yeah.” He just sat back down. “I’ll call you up here for Fort Grand when I take care of a few stuff. And nice job freeing the police.”   
Well there goes my theory. Who else could be on the list? Paris? I didn’t talk to him at all for a while. What was he doing? Is he really siding with Darkwatch? Promised him… what? Power? The ability to make up for his ‘mistake’? What is his mistake anyway? What did he do that would require betrayal? I didn’t talk to Fate either… No. No it’s not her. It isn’t her. I can’t imagine her being with them. But I’ve betrayed so many times, last thing I need to be betrayed by her: The only person I trust with anything – no, everything. I try to get the thought out of my head.  
I went to our little work area… thing… I honestly don’t know what it is. I see Paris sitting at a desk with his feet up and Fate sitting at a chair near the couch reading a book. “Nice work with the police thing.” Has he finally accepted my idea to free them? Fate gets up and hugs me. Then she slaps me. “What the hell, man!?”  
“I’m sorry?”  
“You went on and freed the police officers without telling me? I could’ve helped you out!” Crap. Didn’t think of that.  
“Sorry, I forgot. I was pumped before I could tell anyone.” She holds on to me again.  
“Don’t you dare scare me like that again.” She slapped me again. “That was for doing that the second time.” Callen comes back from the rebel base and stares at us.   
“I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?” He asks  
“Nope.” Paris said. His fatherly instincts must be coming in cause he gestures me and Fate to separate. Callen sits at his desk.   
“Tired?” I ask him.  
“Yep.” He says. I turn back to Paris  
“So why are you thanking me?” I ask.  
“For what?” He asks back  
“For the police thing. I expected you would be pissed with me.”  
“At first I was. But Haidi and Fate tried to convince me that it was important you do so.” Paris explained. Just as he finished, something incredibly random happens. A little girl, Probably 2 or 3, yells “Daddy!!” Callen gets up and picks her up.   
“Hey, Lexie, what’s wrong?”   
“I missed you! Where were you?”  
“I was taking care of something with friends.” I was super confused. I think Fate and Paris were too.  
“Callen. Please tell me you’re babysitting.” I finally ask.  
“Nope. It’s what it looks like, guys.” He answers. “I’m a dad.” Both Paris’s and I’s drop to the floor. What? Callen is a dad? You kidding me? He had to be like… 25? When did he have her?   
“So… when did you have a daughter?” I finally asked. He looked at the floor like he didn’t want to talk about it.   
“It was when I was first stationed here. I met someone and… long story short, we fell in love, and I… had Lexie.” Lexie giggles and hugs her dad. Obviously, a lot of other stuff happened. But he didn’t want to talk about it. “She died protecting us. Haidi and some others watch her while I’m out.”   
Fate just lets out a girly scream and plays with Lexie. “Awwww, why didn’t you tell us? She’s so adorable!” She continues playing with the baby. Paris and I are just dumbfounded.   
“You’re seeing this too right?” I ask him.  
“Uhh, yeah.”  
“Good so I’m not crazy.” Just then, Eric comes down to tell us that its time.   
Callen leaves Lexie with one of the babysitters. “I’ll be back, sweety.”  
We went up to Ops to be prepped for the mission. Eric explains the mission to us.   
“Ok, today’s the day. After this, Darkwatch’s military will crumble.” He taps a few buttons and a picture of Baron Flint comes up. “Baron Flint. General of Darkwatch. He’s as dangerous as they come. Once a criminal on the run, until Darkwatch recruited him. He slowly went up the ranks and became Caption General. Here’s the plan: there is a sewage system under the fort. Django and Paris will sneak in through the fort that way. Dressed as the enemy, they’ll place powerful bombs throughout the fort. While doing so, they’ll disable the machine gun nests, and mortars. Once they are disabled and the bombs have exploded, we’ll storm in with the rebels with Fate and Connor taking point. While that’s going on, Django and Paris will look from Baron. His quarters are at the back of the fort.” Eric finally finishes.   
“After today, Darkwatch will weaken more than ever. Don’t screw up” Haidi says. Paris and I get dressed up in the enemy armor. And we set out for the fort.

I met up with Paris at the sewage line at the beach by the fort. “You ready?” I ask him.  
“Let’s.” He answers. I looked around to see if anyone is looking at us. No soldiers. We’re good. I used the aura grip and removed the bars around the large sewer pipe and we went in.   
We walked towards the fort. We encounter a large wall of sewage. How it got here was a big question. “Ok, I think we can blast it out of here.” Paris says. This could be a good time to ask him the question that’s been bugging me since I met him.  
“What is your mistake?” Paris just freezes.  
“Now’s not the time for that.”  
“No. I want to know, Paris. You never gave me a straight answer about my kind.” I sensed anger coming off of him “Now what aren’t you with the Aura Readers?”   
Paris turns around angrily “Because I failed them!!” As he yelled, fire came out of his hands. “I failed them…” he leads against a wall and slides down with his hands cupping his face. “Fine. I’ll tell you. I made a mistake…” He began to tell me what happened. “It was long before the invasion. We had a meeting on how to defeat the Dark Readers. This was around when your father found the mask of dimensions. Logan suggested we use it to rid the world of the Dark Readers and the humans who deserved to go. The elders didn’t like this plan, and rejected it. I was tasked to keep it under guard. Logan wanted me to give him access to it so he can go ahead and do his plan. I thought it was the only tactic we could do… But your father stopped him from getting it. The elders banished Logan for disobeying them. So was I for giving Logan access. But then…” I knew what happened after that. That’s when Logan got the Dark Readers to follow him and attack the cities. “When I heard about the attack, everyone was dead. I thought Fate and her mother died. I heard about the legend of the Core and tried to find the keys in Paldia. That’s why I’m doing this.” He gets up, takes out his sword “After this, Django…I’ll get our kind and your family back!” He used a heat wave to push the sewage out of the way. I now know why Paris is fueled by this Core. And it makes me want to get to it too… if not for the visions.

We were under the fort. I went up the latter and we were in the court yard. I helped Paris up. “Let’s split up. Set the charges in the west side, I’ll take care of the east.” Paris said. We split up. Fort Grand is huge. Up the stairs overlook and connect to the other court yards. The place is huge and crawling with Darkwatch troops. I make my way to the mortar in the west towers. It takes a while to go up the stairs. I set the timer while the other guys are staring up in space. I make my way to other tower and do the same. I disable the turrets with my fire. Thanks to my disguise, they have no idea I’m here.   
I plant a charge at the entrance. After that, I hear a couple guards talking.  
“We got word that two members of the Zodian Corps are here!”  
“Any idea where?”   
“We don’t know. They’re in disguise.”  
“Keep an eye out for them.”  
Again? Who is it telling them this? I radio Paris the situation. He’s on alert too. After setting up other charges, I radio Paris and Ops if they are ready. Paris has all bombs planted and turrets disabled. The rebels are ready to strike. Paris and I meet up where the bombs won’t kill us.   
“Ready?” He asks us.  
“Ready.”  
“Ready.”  
“Ready.”  
Paris presses the trigger and the bombs explode right away. The mortars, machine gun nests, stockpiles, all important places, now gone. The troops go into a panic and someone is on the speaker.   
“All Darkwatch troops! We have been infiltrated! Assume defense positions!” The bombs at the entrances also explode. The rebels, S.W.A.T teams, and Zodian Corps, all begin firing at Darkwatch. A huge gunfight is happening right now. Fate and Connor are down there too. Fate’s firing fire at them and doing well.  
“That’s my girl.” Paris says. “Go find Baron! I’ll join the battle.” He jumps down to join the fight. A couple of soldiers pass by; I ask them where Flint is protected. I tell them it’s because I’m his bodyguard and need to know where he is. They tell me the northern tower. But then they get a radioed. “Hey! You’re a Zodian Corps member!” They open fire at me. I used an earth barrier and launch it at them. Crap. They found us out. They weren’t here when Paris jumped down. The traitor strikes again. I take their radios to listen in.   
“Move Baron to the Northern tower! Django Hunter has been spotted disguised as a commander. Shoot on sight.” Well this blows my disguise. I radio everyone “Everyone! Their on to us! Keep fighting! For Paldia!” They cheer and fight on.  
I move to the north tower. I fight my way through Darkwatch troopers and Dark Readers. I use my “Auraic” power and freeze them. I blast my way through the door and see Baron above me on the stairs.  
“Well, well. Django Hunter. When Franco was killed, I suspended you would come for me.” Baron says  
“It’s over Baron. Your untouchable fort has been touched.” I snap back. “And who’s the traitor in the Zodian Corps?”  
“You think I’ll tell you that? Kill him!” Lightning Readers drop down. They fire a lightning strike but I side-step and fire and Time blast. The other try’s to stab me but I parry his blade and stab him back. Baron was getting away. I used my earth launch to try and catch up to him. We went made it to the top of the tower. I use the aura grip on his guards and throw them off the tower.   
“You’re not a leader.” I tell him.  
“What?”  
“A real leader would stand and fight. Fight along side his soldiers. But you sent other to do your dirty work.”  
“Without me, this origination wouldn’t be here!” He takes out his sword. I take out mine. He takes out the fire key. “You’re here for this too? Nice try but you won’t get it!” He attaches it to his blade. Making it glow.   
We fight, clashing blades. When I try to use my aura grip, the key repels it. What’s going on here? We fight for sometime until I decide to reach for his head for a mind-link. When I do, the key glows and its energy is absorbed into me. Before I fiant again, I hear something on the radio. “Wolf’s been spotted! The bastard was hiding in the northeast tower!” a helicopter came to pick him up to escape.   
“Wolf!!!” I scream. I fired an aura missile at his helicopter before I faint.   
I see Baron in the same black and white room like with Franco.   
“No… I had everything the master promised me. The power should have defeated you!”  
“Power alone doesn’t win the fight. You have to know how to use it.”  
“I’ve kicked around all my life. I thought I could have the power to fight back.”  
“You don’t need power to fight back. Just have the heart and courage to do so.”  
“It’s too late for me. Take the key already. I need it no more.” Our little chat ends and I have another vision of my ancestor.

_We didn’t talk for several years. After that attack earlier, Gale and I discussed our plans.  
“What do we do?”   
“I’ll face Solo alone.”  
“What!? You’ll need help!”   
“No. I have to end this myself. You go to Atero. Face Vahi. Solo is mine.”  
We parted our ways. Gale was just a young Aura Reader with no parents and a great swords man. Little did I know, in your time, Django, he’ll be needed to help the White Draconian Knight to defeat Vahi…_

I snap back to reality. A couple hours have past. The fort is under our control. I ask everyone what happened. Fate explains the situation. Everyone fought and some died. There was a bloodbath everywhere. Bodies, both Darkwatch and Zodian corps, everywhere. I see Baron’s body. I put my fingers on his eyes and close them.   
“Where’s Wolf?” I ask  
“His helicopter was spotted two miles from here.” Callen says.  
“I’ll go after him.” I say 

I use my jet-boots to get there. I see a crashed helicopter. No way had Wolf survived this. But still I have to check it out. I went inside the helicopter.  
“Yo, Wolf, you still alive in here?” I yell. He isn’t here. He must have limbed out of here. What does it take to kill this guy? Just then, people started screaming. They were running away from something. I looked what they were running away from and…. “What the hell…?” I saw a seven foot tall man. Skin gray like the Tainted. Had a dual sided trident and its head was totally deformed. It made a massive yell, and more Tainted came. He charged at me. I panicked and use my new time power. I fired a time missile at him. It made contact and flew across the air in super speed and hit the building. Whoa. Now that was awesome. I used my other power. I surrounded myself in fire and charged at him. Even sweeter. He attacked me with his trident and I blocked it. As we were fighting, I wanted to know who this guy was.  
After I defeated him, a large smog cloud surrounds us. The air was distasteful. But the true identity of this guy was even more disgusting. He was reverting back to his original form. And I saw his face: Wolf. He ran off when he saw me and vanished.  
Oh. He can run all he wants. I now know his true secret. And I am coming for him.


	13. Exposing the Wolf

I told everyone back at Ops about what I saw. They couldn’t believe their ears.  
“What?”   
“Are you serious?”  
“I’m not kidding, I saw him.” I say  
“Wolf must behind the Tainted” Paris says.   
“What do we do?” Fate asks  
“We let the whole city know.” I say. If we were to tell the city that Wolf is behind the Tainted, they would turn against him. And overthrow him. And with no support from the Ark Raiders, Darkwatch will weaken even more. “We let the city know that Wolf is behind the Tainted” I tell them what would happen if we did. They all like the idea.  
“But we would need more proof.” Haidi says. “Our message won’t be as strong if we have video or pictures of him in the act.”  
“She’s right.” Fate says. “If Wolf makes the Tainted, where would he make them?”  
“I think I know.” Eric says. He pushes his buttons on his keyboard and an image of a train yard appears on screen. “According to our spies, Wolf visits this train yard all the time. But where he goes in it is a mystery.” I lead on the table.  
“Is there a pattern to his visits?” I ask. Maybe we could identify a pattern and intercept him there.   
“Nope, they are completely random. He goes there at random times.” Eric explains. I look at the photo and I noticed something.   
“Wait… why are there Ark Raiders guarding those rail cars?” I ask. Eric takes a hard look at them.  
“I don’t know.”  
“If he needs all that soldiers, he’s hiding something.” That’s when I get an idea. “Wait, what if I sneak in there, and use my camera to photograph whatever’s there and Eric could make it into a slideshow and show everyone in the city.” It’s a long shot. But Sneaking in might be a problem.  
“Not bad, Django.” Paris says.   
Eric looks at the map of the city. “Ok, there’s a sewer pipe there.” Oh god, not again. I can see where this going.  
“Loving where this is going.” I say. Eric shrugs off my comment  
“You go in and enter the train yard from the backside and work your way in.” Eric finishes.

After the meeting, Callen takes off somewhere. “Where you going?” I ask him.  
“Got to take care of something.” He says. I was going to exit out with him to the sewer pipe location – oh joy – Paris stops me for a second.   
“Where is he going?” Paris asks. I can just tell he’s not liking Callen right now.  
“He didn’t tell me what?” I ask. I already knew where this was going.  
“Don’t you see, Django? Callen is the spy.” Paris says. This doesn’t make me happy.  
“What? No. Callen is not working for Darkwatch.” I tell Paris. No way he’s working for them… unless my theory was right, and they trade him information on us for his past. I try to think of several reasons he wouldn’t… but it’s his past. He’ll want to chase after that no matter the cost.  
“Look at the facts: He’s rarely here anymore; he wasn’t with us on the invasion battle until the last second. I’m telling you, Django, he’s working for them”  
“Callen may be some things, but a traitor isn’t one of them.” I say. I turn and leave. But Paris says something that freezes me in place.  
“You’re only defending him because you let him close to you.” He says. “That’s what they do. Get close to you and stab you in the heart.” When he said ‘they’ I know he means the human race.  
“At least he’s doing a better job than you are.” I say without looking. I must have struck him hard, because after that, I didn’t hear anything after that. I just left.

I made it to the sewer pipe location. I’m still thinking about my conversation with Paris. I try to block that out and focus on this. My radio beeps as I get in.   
“Django, what happened with dad this time?” Fate asks. This isn’t good. I wasn’t going to expect this until we were 30.   
“He thinks Callen is the traitor.” I say. She pauses for a second.  
“What? Callen isn’t a traitor.” She says.  
“I don’t want to agree with him. But he makes a valid point. Callen has been gone a lot.” I tell her. “But I refuse to believe it.”  
“I don’t want to believe it either… I’ll try to find him. He’s not picking up though his radio cell though.” Great, another case that’s enforcing Paris’s point.  
“Let me get through this mission and we’ll face him about it.” I tell her.  
“Ok. I love you.”  
“Love you too.”

I make it to the other side of the sewer pipe. I’m a giant train yard. For several yards, there are train tracks reaching throughout the area. The tracks go around the Indus works district, giving supplies to workers. Ark Raiders are everywhere. Snipers are up in sniper towers, and there are patrols everywhere. It’ll be hard to sneak around. Eric sends me the locations of know guards stationed at certain locations. I cannot bring attention. I just have to get the pictures and find Wolf. If he’s not here, then I have to get out.   
I sneak my way to the first rail car. I position myself away form the guards. I take out my camera phone and take the picture. But what I see… is beyond what I thought Wolf would do. I see people in the cages. Clothes ripped, them starving, they look like they been there for weeks, with barely anything to eat. I tell everyone what I’m seeing. They can’t believe it either. Haidi reminds me to keep myself from saving them. Wait until I take pictures of more people. For now, I agree. I’m going to save these people. Plus, they could tell everyone what Wolf is doing here.  
I make it to the next rail car. But I don’t see people this time. I see the Tainted. What the hell is Wolf doing? People in cages and Tainted too? I can understand the Tainted but you think they would kill them on sight. But why are there are people trapped here? Maybe they stumbled here and the Ark Raiders didn’t want them to tell everyone what they are seeing? Or are these ‘deviants’ they captured?   
I take more pictures of more rail cars. More cages of people and Tainted. I sent the pictures to Ops. They tell me I can save the people now. But be careful. I was about to spring into action until I overhear a couple of soldiers.  
“Wolf’s here again?”  
“Yep, brought another person who ‘wants to be healed by god’”  
“My god. What people will believe these days.”   
So much for saving this people. I follow the two guards to a giant warehouse. I Get to the top of the warehouse and look through the window. I start taking pictures of Wolf. There’s a glass room in the warehouse with a chair. A man enters and walks up to Wolf. There’s a conversation between the two.  
“Ahh, Dave. Hello. How are you doing?”  
“Sir Wolf. I believe…” He seems short of breath. “That I have been taken by the devil! From what I seen from your commercials, I have the symptoms! I have been taken over by the devil!” The man says. Are you freaking kidding me? Some people actually buy this? Maybe that’s why those people are here? If they did, they may be idiots but I have to save them anyway.   
“Don’t worry, Dave. We’ll save you. Follow me.” They go into the glass room. I noticed something: there are guards everywhere, more than usual. They keep their eyes on the glass room. What’s going to happen? I see wolf place his hands on his shoulder. I take pictures expecting something to happen. And I was right. What happens… explains everything about this place. There’s the same smog from when I defeated him earlier. It surrounds the man and he starts screaming. “Fight it, Dave! Fight the demon!” next thing that happens is something that can’t be unseen. I take more pictures. But I’m shaking my hands at what’s happening. Dave’s bones seem to form claws, both his hands and feet. His skin turns gray. He became a Tainted.  
I sent the pictures to Eric and tell the others what’s happening. They were horrified. That’s when I realized how Wolf got the people to trust him. He made the Tainted and releases them to get the people to trust him. But Then I remember the outposts in the swamps. If he controls them, why set outposts to stop them? Maybe he can’t control them. Maybe some somehow reproduced and created some that he can’t control. No matter how you slice it, Wolf is master to these things. Eric quickly makes a montage and tries to hack into Ark Raiders channel. As soon as he’s in, he posts the pictures to every television. Everyone will see Wolf for who he truly is.   
The Ark Raiders take the Tainted away. Wolf grabs a bottle of water and walks toward a TV. What he sees… his face to those pictures was priceless. I crack a smile. This is the best moment ever. He looks my way. Must have figured out where those last pictures came from. Normally, you would’ve run for it to prevent being spotted, but me? I couldn’t resist. I hold up my phone and wave to him still smiling. Wolf is now done. Everyone will be against him. He will be hunted down for killing people and turning them into Tainted. The tables will be turned. Wolf’s entire life will fall apart. The bastard will be running for his life. The idea makes me smile even more. I still wave, mocking him. Letting him know that he lost, and I won.   
He drops his water bottle and angrily says “Django…” A cloud of smog appears around him and he disappears. The glass breaks and the Ark Raiders see me. I make a break for it. I run back to the rail cars and release the prisoners. I get as many as I can and escort them back to the sewer pipe.   
Today was a great victory. Not just for the Zodian Corps. Not just for the city, but for me. I finally beat Wolf.


	14. The Hunter and the Wolf

It’s only been a couple of days and people are already shunning the Ark Raiders. When they see someone in Ark Raider uniform, they throw rocks at them. Most of them retreated to the Cepheus District. The Cepheus District is at the northwestern side of the city. It’s like a small island but a not very far from the city. A bridge connects it and is heavily guarded. It was the headquarters of the Aura Readers, now it’s taken by Darkwatch and Ark Raiders. I recount the number of keys we have: 4 keys. 2 left.   
I get a call from Paris. Knowing him, this can’t go well.  
“Django, we got a problem.” Again with this.  
“What is it, Paris?”   
“I had a mission a while ago, and we were ambushed again. Callen was supposed to be with us and he wasn’t here until the last second.” I can tell where he’s going with this.  
“Paris, Callen isn’t betraying us.”  
“Open your eyes, Django! It’s clear to everyone! If you don’t do something, I will.” Paris says as he hangs up. This can’t be good. If I don’t clear Callen’s name, Paris might do something he’ll regret. I get another call. I’m so frustrated, I answer with anger.  
“What!?”  
“Whoa, dude. What pissed you off?” Eric says. I thought he was a traitor with no real proof, now I yell at him. I’m surprised he didn’t kill me by now.  
“Sorry. Sorry, Eric. Paris is being unreasonable. Where is he?”  
“Still here. He went down to the cubicle.” He says. “But I found something out, you in the mood for the fifth key?”   
“Where is it?”   
“I think it’s in a warehouse near you. I’m sending you the location.” I get the location on my GPS.   
“Thanks, Eric… And I’m sorry for thinking you were the mole.”  
“It’s ok. Just kick Darkwatch’s ass and we’ll call it even.”  
“That promise I know I can keep.” 

I made it to the warehouse. I looked from the skylight and see some Ark Raiders. They must be guarding something, the key most likely. I throw some grenades and clear the area. I contact Eric. “Ok, Eric, where’s the key?”  
“It should be in a safe somewhere.” I looked around. I saw a safe at the corner of it. I used my aura grip to open the hatch. I don’t find the key. Instead, I find some documents.  
“Ugh, no key. Just some property deeds…” I read what they say. “To two other warehouses.” Great. That means that the key could be in anyone of these warehouses. And that means more Ark Raiders or Darkwatch.  
“Crap. It has to be one of those.” Eric says.  
“I’m sending you pictures of the deeds. I’m going to the nearest one.”

I went to the second warehouse. Instead, I find Darkwatch.   
“Look for it! It has to be here.” One soldier says. I clear them out and look for the other safe. I find on the overhead path. I use my aura grip to open it. There’s nothing inside.  
“Ugh, there’s nothing in this one.”  
“Ugh… ok… how about we call it a day?” Eric suggests.  
“No, there’s one more warehouse. It’s worth a shot.” I say.

I head my way over to the third warehouse. I don’t see anyone there. The warehouse is longer than the others. Before I go in, I see a metal reader. He reads the metal around him and makes a large battle suit of some kind.   
“Come on, man! I don’t need this!” I yell at him. He creates a machine gun and fires ‘bullets’ at me. I create an earth barrier to protect me, but it’s no good, the bullets break through. I jump behind a trailer and take cover. When he stops, I launch fire missiles and grenades at him. The metal should make it hot for him. He launches a metal missile. I use my earth launch to jump up and the missile hits the trailer. I fire more missiles at him. When I land, I use my aura grip on the trailer and throw it at him. The trailer explodes on him. He heels down in pain. I notice that there’s something protecting his face. I run up and use my sword to tear it open. He gets back up. But whatever’s protecting his face is gone. I fire some fire missiles and he heels down again. He must be dying of the heat.   
I walk over to the warehouse. I look for the key. But I glance over to the wall and… It’s just… I see pictures of The Son. There are notes everywhere, assassination plans. Wolf was planning on assassinating his master? I did kind of saw this coming. But most of these plans wouldn’t work. Either his preflex or quick healing would counter these. I radio Eric and whoever’s at Ops about this. He’s not surprised Wolf would betray one of his own. I see a safe. I use my aura grip on it. I found a key. “Hey Eric, we’re in luck, I found another key.” I tell him.   
“Yes I knew it!” He cheers. But that’s not all  
“Wait. There’s something else in here.”  
“Two keys?”  
“No, I wish. But it’s Wolf’s briefcase.”   
“Well open it!”   
I open the briefcase and… Oh god. What I see in this briefcase… Is Wolf’s master plan. I see shipment orders on Dark Readers being shipped to overseas. And the buyers? Is every terrorist leader we know. What the hell is Wolf thinking? He’s sending off living and breathing weapons to these maniacs. Wolf is going to start a world war 3 for people of mass destruction. No, not a war, a mass genocide. But I sit there thinking what he can gain from this. It can’t be about the money. He has way too much of it. And he gives it away to many hospitals and charities. What is he trying to do, buy his way into heaven? No, an insane pious man like him… It must be for some religious reason. I don’t know. I’m not seeing the full picture yet. I tell Eric what I find.   
“What the hell…”  
“I know. This man is insane.” I look at the shipping date. “Wait… they’re shipping today!”   
“What!? Dude, you have to stop it!”   
“The docks are near here, I see the ships now. I’ll go and stop them.”  
“Wait a second…” Eric trials off and there’s a pause. “Django, Paris left the building.” “Crap, I think I know what’s he’s going to do. Try to stop him.”   
“I will.”   
Right as I’m leaving, bars drop down on all exits, trapping me. I try to use the aura grip on them, but it’s not working. I fire aura missiles, and nothing. What the hell is this? Then, he comes out. Wolf.   
“Well, well, well. Looks like the Hunter became the hunted.” He said. He brought two other guards with him.  
“What’s going on here, Wolf?” I demand.   
“Simple, trapping you. These bars are made of a material immune to your aura grip or attacks.” Wolf explains. I study the bars.  
“This seems like a complicated trap, Wolf, what are you planning? Revenge? Didn’t like the fact I turned the whole city against you?” I say. He seems to be holding in his anger.  
“I’m here to offer you a deal.” He says.  
“Really? I kick you off your little throne and you’re begging for my help.” oh the irony  
“It’s something that can both benefit us. We team up and kill The Son.”   
“Killing your master? When he attacked this city, you surrendered and now you want to kill him?”   
“It was the only way to make sure no one else dies! Anyway, I need your help. I can’t beat him on my own.” I consider his deal. I don’t like it.  
“… No. I would never team up with you Wolf.” I walk up to the bars and show my aura eyes. “Because I know as soon as you have the chance, you would stab me in the back.” I grip the bars. “Listen Wolf, you want me to save your city? You want me to kill The Son? Then release me, and stay the hell out of my way!”  
“I gave you a chance to live and you turn it down. Fine.” He signals his guards. “End him.” They hold up their guns. I can’t strike back or protect. Wolf walks away and disappears in his smog. I quickly reach for my ear piece.  
“Eric, Callen, Fate, anyone! I need help now!” Just before the guard shot me down, a sniper shot comes out of no where and kills one of them. The other guard panics and looks for the sniper. He gets shot before trying to fire back. The next shot hits a panel and the bars collapse. I look around but don’t see anybody. “Uhh never mind.” I hear Haidi’s voice.  
“Django? What happened?”  
“I was trapped by Wolf’s guards. But someone saved me. Whoever you sent, thanks Haidi.”  
“What are you talking about? I didn’t send anyone. There are no agents near you.”  
“What?” I look around and on the rooftop on the building across the street is a hooded figure with a sniper rifle. The sun gets in my eyes and whoever was there is gone. What happened? I don’t know. But I have one mission to do: Stop the Dark Readers from being shipped.

I made it to the ships. Two ships are shipping them off. The Dark Readers are in comas under the ships. I fight off the Ark Raider guards. Darkwatch guards aren’t here. They must not know they are being shipped. After I fight off the guards, I destroy the ship with everything I got. I hope no one sees me. It could hurt my status in this place. I head to the second ship. I fight off more guards then before. I destroy that ship too. Just as I’m going to head out, I admire my work. They haven’t built a ship I can’t sink. But as I turn around, I see him. After two years, I see him here, staring at me. How did he find me? How he get here? I stare at him back, figuring out why he’s here.   
“Blake?”


	15. Confession

I just stood there, waiting for him to respond. This is one of the most random things that ever happened to me. I just finished destroying the ships that had the Dark Readers Wolf was going to ship. And when I get back to the dock, I see Blake a few feet from me.  
“Hello, Django” He finally says back.   
“Well, long time no see, man. What are you doing here? We haven’t seen you for 2 years.” I ask him  
“Let’s say I’ve been traveling. Listen, Django, I know everything.” He says. He knows about the Dark Readers and the Aura Readers? Well just about everyone knows them, but what does he mean by ‘everything’?  
“What do you mean?” I ask  
“I know about the Dark Aura war. I have seen many things, what this war is doing.” He says.  
“What are you talking about?” I ask.  
“… Follow me.” He says. 

I follow him. I don’t know where we are going. But the Ark Raiders and Darkwatch aren’t attacking us. We’re pretty much open targets. And this are is pretty packed with them. I may not see them on the streets but I can sense them on the rooftops. Why aren’t they attacking us? I follow Blake to a warehouse. But it’s not a regular warehouse. It’s a clinic.  
There are people in beds, wrapped in bandages. A lot of them are hurt.   
“What is this?” I ask Blake.  
“This is the cost of the war between you and Darkwatch.” Blake says. “These are the people that are caught in the crossfire. It’s not just here; all over city has clinics like this. Hospitals are filling up too much, more people are dying then the graveyards can hold. But not just Paldia. Everywhere, in all the cities, this is happening.” He turns to me. “And you want to know why this is happening?”  
“I’m sure you’ll tell me.”   
“Its because of the war.” He says. “Django, Darkwatch isn’t doing this.” What? No, he’s wrong… “They are not harming people on purpose. You drove them to this. The Zodian Corps drove them to this. If you were to just side with them, there be no more violence.” Since when is Blake like this? Something is wrong.  
“Since when were you the peaceful type?” I ask.  
“It’s true, I was rash, arrogant, and stupid two years ago, but now I see things no one else can see. Not even your Aura Sense can see. Only me. They showed me the truth.” They? Oh no…  
“You’re with Darkwatch aren’t you!?” I take out my sword and defend myself. I expect an attack, ambush, but nothing happens. Blake stands there, like my threatening pose means nothing.  
“Yes, I’m with them. But I’m not here to battle you. I’m here to tell you what they told me.” He says.   
“No! They are monsters. We fight them to protect the people!”   
“Have they!?” Blake is raising his voice from out of nowhere “Ever since you came here, have you seen Darkwatch pick on anyone?”   
“I’ve seen a few.”  
“No, that was the Ark Raiders. That’s because Wolf is too stupid and pious to call them off. But have you seen Darkwatch beat up someone for no reason?” I remember how Darkwatch beat up Jonathan. I tell Blake about that. “No, he made bets with Franco and Franco shouldn’t have even been gambling. Good thing you killed him. He was always wasting our money.” All of this is making me think. Are we really the ones killing everyone? Have I – We been wrong this entire time? “I can see you need time to think about what I said.”  
“No… I’m going to keep fighting them. We’re close to getting rid of Darkwatch and the Ark Raiders. After that, no one else will die. They will pay for Uncle Marc’s death”  
“… You fool.” He says. “Marc was in the way. Those who get in the way, die. They are known to us as the enemies. People will always die. You can’t stop it. There could be a murder happening somewhere else. You can’t be at two places at the same time. And Darkwatch is big, Django. They’ll keep coming back.” I don’t know what else to say at this point. Blake makes so much sense. Should we stop fighting completely? Maybe Darkwatch isn’t as bad as we think it is. I mean, we see no prove of evil intentions. They just want peace like us. But Paris always rants how he hates how they kill innocents. But Blake sounds like he’s not lying. I don’t know what’s true or false now. But They have to pay for Uncle Marc’s death.   
“I don’t know if what you say is true. But I’ll still fight them.”   
“You’re lying.”  
“What?”  
“You don’t know what to do. You don’t know wither to give up or keep fighting.” How did he how what I was feeling? Unless…  
“How did you know that?” I ask. Blake cracks a smile. That’s when I realize it. They turned him into a Dark Reader. “They turned you into a Dark Reader didn’t they!?” He turns around and faces me.  
“Django, Django. It seems you still want to fight Darkwatch.”  
“You didn’t answer my question! Did they turn you into a Dark Reader!?” I demand. He smiles.  
“Not really.” Black aura starts to surround him, lifting him up in the air. His sleeves rise up and it reveals gauntlets. Rocks start to rise up in the air. Fire surrounds him, acid too. The energy from the aura key I got from Wolf’s warehouse starts to react. Its energy pours into me. “I’m beyond what artificial Dark Readers can dish out.” That’s when I realize the horrible truth. The man I see in front of me is no mere Dark Reader.  
“You’re The Son!”   
He releases his aura and I get knocked away. I look up to see he’s gone; I then slip into a coma. 

I arrived at the Time and Space Towers. Solo was there waiting for me. We fought to the end, neither one letting up. I was about to finish him off. But the memories of our past flood my mind. We grew up together and now we’re enemies. Once we were friends, now we are enemies. In that moment of indecision, he struck me with his sword. I fell to the ground. He won. He now gets to do with this place whatever he pleases…No one will stand in his way…

I wake up from my coma. I stand up to see Blake gone. The realization of him as The Son, the person I want dead, the person that killed Marc, was my best friend. I stand up and I see a woman staring at me with terrified eyes. I recognized her. She was guarding the ship at Ace City.  
“Wait, hold up.” I say to get her attention. But she runs. I chase after her. “Wait!” I yell. She keeps running and then Darkwatch troopers come out of the alley ways and block me off. I Jump on the boxes near me and work my way up the wooden poles poking out of the sides of the buildings. I use my jet-boots to chase after her. I grab her. “What was that for!?” I remove my hood to show her my face. “It’s me! Django!?”  
“Hello, Django. Sorry but I can’t have you here.” She finally says. She uses a taster and zaps me.   
“Ow! What was that for?” I see documents in her hands. Was she keeping me from getting them? I use my aura grip to get them. I open them up and see… everything. All information on the Zodian Corps. All of our missions, where we plan to go, everything. “What’s this?” I ask her. She remains silent. “Are you the traitor!?” I yell. Anger starts to overcome me. But she holds up and grenade, she’s holding on the trigger that keeps it form exploding. But the pin is gone.  
“For Darkwatch.” She says as she lets go of the trigger. I use my jet-boots to jet away from her. But I’m still caught in the blast radius. I survive but barely. I have burns on my back. The robe is fire and water proof. It has burn marks but its fine. I can still feel by back hurting from the burns. My quick healing is slowed down. It’s taking longer than usual to heal. I remember that since she was the traitor, it proves Callen innocent! I look at the documents I got from her. Luckily, they are still readable. I put them in my sling pack and contact Eric.  
“Eric, you there?” I ask.   
“Django? What happened!? I lost contact with you! Are you ok?”  
“Great. I found out who The Son and the mole is…”  
“That’s great! Who is it?”   
“I’ll tell you later. Where are Paris and Callen? I need to let Paris know before he might kill Callen.” I tell him.  
“I’m still searching for –“ He gets interrupted by some machine. He remains silent for a few seconds. “Django! I found them! They’re at the observation deck at the beach area!” I instantly use the jet boots to get there. However, they have a charge time. I have to let them cool off once in a while to prevent overheating. I use the buildings to get there faster. I try calling Paris. Nothing. No response. I try Callen. His phone isn’t responding neither. I try to call Fate.   
“Django? Are you ok?”   
“Fate! Is Paris and or Callen with you!?”  
“No, I just got back from a mission. Why?”  
“I found out who the mole is.”  
“Really!? That’s great news! Who is it?”   
“It was someone we didn’t know. She killed herself with a grenade. I couldn’t do anything.”  
“My god…”  
“Now I have to get this info to Paris or Callen! I can’t get a hold of them! Paris might kill him soon! They’re at the observation deck at the beach area! Are you anywhere near there?”  
“Not really. I’m at an outpost somewhere in the Indus district.”  
“Get over there quick!”   
“Roger.” 

After a long time, I made it to the observation deck. I search for them. I can’t find them. I see a fire burst at the end of the deck. I rush over. I see the two of them, still standing.   
“I know you’re the traitor, Callen!” Paris yells  
“I’m not the traitor! How many times do I have to say it!?” Paris is about to kill him when I read a earth pillar in front of Callen to block the fire wave.  
“Stop! The both of you!” I yell. Paris looks at me.   
“What are you doing, Django!? I got this traitor!”  
“No! He isn’t the traitor!”  
“He is! Open you mind!”  
“I found the traitor a few minutes ago!” This gets Paris’s attention. I take out the documents I got from Connie. “She was a woman Marc dated. She used him to get info on us.” Paris is stupefied by this info. Callen walks up to us.   
“I told you so.” Callen said to Paris.  
“But I was so sure…” Paris begins to say.  
“No you weren’t.” I say. They both look at me. “Why do the two of you have to keep fighting? We’re supposed to be allies.” Fate arrives as I am talking to them. “I’m getting sick and tired of the two of you constantly fighting! Paris, not all humans are evil. You have to learn to get that through your skull!” Paris remains silent.  
“… I’m sorry.” He finally says. “To the both of you. I’m sorry.” I place my hands one both of their shoulders.   
“Now, why won’t we clean the plate? Get to know each other better?” I suggest. I sense Fate getting teary eyed.   
“I’m sorry, Callen. For everything.” Paris says. He lifts his hand. Callen shakes his hand.  
“Well… I guess I would’ve assumed the same thing if I was you.”  
“So tell us, why were you gone so many times?” Paris asks. Fate walks up to us to listen in.  
“Oh well, uhhh…. I went on a few dates with Nami.” He says.  
“Oh, well that’s not bad, why didn’t you tell us?”  
“Cause we go….” He mumbles something. But we can’t hear him.  
“What?” I ask  
“I said we go…” He mumbles again  
“Dude what is it?”  
“We go figure skating, ok!?” Paris and I try to keep ourselves from laughing. But we couldn’t and we laugh our asses off. Fate slaps us upside the heads.  
“You idiots, don’t laugh at him, I think it’s cute that you do something you don’t like for your lady.” She said.   
We all get a call from Haidi, telling us to get to Ops. We do. Once we get there, she tells us our new plan to take out Wolf. It requires someone to distract him while we get the traps in place. I volunteer. I know exactly how to distract him.

I get in place. I stand on top of a small shed on a heli-pad. He’s in the building expecting a helicopter to air lift him out of here. But that mission of Fate’s was to sabotage it. I have to keep him here for the trap to be set in place. He gets out and runs to the heli-pad without noticing me. He looks around wondering where it is. I walk up to him.  
“Sorry, but your flight has been delayed.” I say. He turns around. I thought he would expect me to be dead. But it’s like he expected me here.  
“Well, well. Someone has a guardian angel.” He says. “I saw the security tape and you have a lot of luck, Mr. Hunter.”  
“I bet you could say the same.” I say. “I pretty much I have your plan figured out. You surrendered when Paldia was invaded by Darkwatch. You did that so they would spare you. So you would be second in command. You use their technology to make the Dark Readers. The ones that The Son can’t use, you ship them to the highest better.” I explain. “But the one’s that don’t make the transformation, they turn into the Tainted. And you use those to make yourself a hero to the people, and that disgusting form of yours? You tested on yourself. You thought you’d be some shiny superhuman that would lead the human race out of Darkwatch’s rule and try to kill The Son to gain back your city. But really, it turned you into a 7 foot magget.”  
“Django, don’t you test me now.”  
“At this point, I don’t care. But the one thing I don’t get is why. Why would you do this? You’re going to cause a world war 3.” I ask him.  
“The world needs to see the terror of our kind.” He says. What is he saying?  
“Wait? That’s it? You’re just trying to scare people?” I ask  
“The Aura Readers are not part of the divine plan! You come to our planet and take what’s ours!”  
“You mean like how humans take things from our people!?” I yell at him. He stops and listens. “Over the years, humans fought each other for things they could’ve shared. I’m guessing your family descendant from Salem, am I right?” He has a bio that explains his heritage. “You hated the Indians, and kicked them out of their own land. You thought they were sons of the devil. You hanged or burned people you assume were witches. That’s one of the many examples of how you are a hypocrite.” I say. He gets pissed a little.  
“Don’t test me, Django. If I turn into that beast again, it could end us all.”  
“No, Wolf, you don’t get the concept of power. You see.” I take out my new sword. It’s faster and stronger than my old sword I had when I got to Paldia. “It’s not the powers that kill people… It’s the person behind the powers that kill people. You thought that you would control your abilities so easy? Wrong, it takes months, maybe years, to fully control them. I had to go through so much training to do so.”  
“Well, Django.” He jumps off the railing and the smog surrounds him. He transforms into that monster again. And he says in a monsterous voice, “Let this be the end!”  
I jump off the building and lure him away from the streets. He’s firing some type of smog missiles at me. I lure him to an near empty street.   
“Not running anymore, Hunter?” he asks.  
“Right Wolf, Like a hunter, you’ve been hunted.” I say “NOW!” I yell. From the rooftops, rebels and Zodian corps fire rockets and grenades at Wolf. From the smoke, he rises up again.  
“You actually thought that would hurt me?” He says. He then falls on one knee.   
“Actually, I took the designs from the cage you trapped me in. Since you’re technically a Dark Reader, you have the same weakness: Metalized mercury. The missiles were coated in the stuff. It should level the playing field.” He launches at me using his staff to attack me. I block with my sword. We battle for some time. He fires smog missiles and I use the earth launch to dodge and throw time grenades at him. While he’s slowed down, I use a fire charge and strike at him. He exits the range of the time grenade’s time stop field and starts moving at normal speed. We clash swords again, I use the time push and he gets pushed and goes into slow-mo. I fire some ice missiles and he gets half frozen. He breaks out and dashes at me again. I use the jet boots to escape but he grabs me and throws me to the ground.   
“You’re good. But not good enough.” He raises his trident.  
“Actually Wolf, I’m better.”   
“What?” He looks up and sees the aurora lights. “What the hell is that!? The aurora lights!? They should be at the north pole!”  
“I guess you’re not as smart as you claim to be.” I say. I Use my jet-boots to get out of his grip while he’s distracted. “Aurora Storm!” I yell as I summon down the storm on him. He screams in pain. I enjoy every second of it. When it’s over, he gets up reverts back to his normal form. Everyone sees this and is surprised.   
“Damn you, Hunter!” He yells. “You’ll pay for this! You’ll pay!”  
I hear a voice “Eli Wolf!” He turns to see an S.W.A.T team surrounding him. “You are hereby arrested for shipping weapons of mass destruction, genocide, and a whole ton of crap.”   
“No! You can’t do this! I’m the master of Paldia!” He yells at the officer.  
“Doesn’t matter. You have to pay for your crimes.” I tell him  
“No! No! You’ll pay for this, Hunter!” Smog surrounds Wolf and he disappears. Everyone looks around. They are all staring at me. I stand on the nearby car.  
“Everyone! You have been living in a lie. As you made already know, Wolf has turned a lot of people into the Tainted! He got what he deserved. But he can’t hide for long. You are also ruled by Darkwatch. They believe that they can have peace by ruling all of you. But no! Real peace doesn’t come from ruling the people; it has to be by choice, freewill. I’m not saying I should be your leader… But please, just try to aim for what we all really want.” I jump off the car and walk away. The people are all mumbling, wondering what to do. Wolf got away, but we got what we wanted. You may be asking yourselves: “What the hell was the point of the mission?” Throughout my conversation with Wolf, I recorded everything on my radio phone. I sent the video to Eric and he’s going to post it on every TV in the city. People will see Wolf’s plan. It’s over. I won. But there is still one more thing to do…


	16. Gang War

We were all in Ops, celebrating our victory over the Ark Raiders.   
“A toast!” Callen said “To our hard work in freeing Paldia.” We all clinked glasses and drank them. Callen and Paris were having wine. Fate and I were having soda.  
“But we have one more thing to do.” I reminded them  
“Yea.” Callen said. “We still have Darkwatch to worry about.”  
“Any ideas anyone?” Paris asked  
“I have one.” I told them. “I’m going to sneak into the Cephus district and face The Son on my own.”   
“What!?” Fate yelled.  
“You’re insane” Paris said  
“I’m serious.” I told them. “I’m ready for this.” I remember I said those words back when Ace city was under attack. But this time, I know my enemy, I can beat him.   
“We still don’t know who he is!” Callen said  
“Actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you that.” I told them. “When I was searching for the key in Wolf’s warehouses, I ran into The Son. And he revealed his identity to me.”  
“What does he look like?” Callen asked me. Everyone was waiting for me to finish. “Fate,” I turned to her. “It’s Blake.” The expression on her face was nothing I ever seen before.  
“What?” She asked  
“It’s Blake. He told me that Darkwatch isn’t doing what we think they’re doing. He actually believes they are doing good.”   
“Bullcrap.” Callen said. “I saw those guys doing unspeakable things.”  
“He asked me to join them”  
“What!?” Paris asked. “Don’t tell me you’re considering it.”  
“Of course not!” I said. “He killed Uncle Marc. He’s going to pay for that.” I wanted to finish what I started. No. To finish what my ancestor started. Haidi enters the room.   
“Mr. Hunter.” She called me. “I need to talk to you. Come with me.” As I walked out she turned to the others and nodded. What is she planning? We went to the elevator and headed down.  
“Where are we going?” I asked her.  
“It’s a surprise.” She said. When the doors opened, we were in a giant chamber. There were cubicles and in each one was a training simulator and a couple of computers. This must be the where we train the recruits. We walked across the chamber, passing by the simulators. We reached another door and entered the next room. The last chamber had walls that were metallic. But this one had plain stone; like it was built long ago. Did they preserve this room? But there was a long red rug, at the end there were small steps. And in the room, there were Zodian agents. Each one stood along the rug and had a sword or spear of some kind, and there with it pointing at the ground. I turned to Haidi wondering what is this.  
“What is this?” I asked her.  
“Your inauguration.” She answered  
“What?”   
“When you came I told you that you would be the elite leader of the Zodian corps. Remember?” I remember. I remembered that I didn’t want the responsibility.   
“No. We talked about this. I don’t want the responsibility. I don’t have the leadership skills my Uncle Marc had.” I told her.  
“Yes, you do. You just don’t know it.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“You practically lead every mission. You lead the police to save their friends. You lead the assault on Fort Grand. You can do this Django.” She said. I still didn’t believe it. I don’t have my Uncle’s leader spirit. I’m a follower; always have been. I did what others truly above me say without any question.   
“You are a leader, Django.” I turned around and saw Fate, Callen, and Paris.   
“Your father, the guardians before you all have been great leaders.” Paris said. “It’s in your blood.”  
“You are smarter than most leaders these days. You have wisdom beyond your years and know the horrors of corruption.” Callen told me.  
“You inspire others to fight to the end.” Fate told me.  
“What if I make a mistake that could cost everyone’s lives?” I ask. I never liked failing. Uncle Marc said I ‘Don’t take criticism well.’   
“That’s a worse case sercerio.” Haidi said. “Everyone makes mistakes. A great man never makes mistakes. But a greater man learns from his and everyone’s mistakes.” I thought about it for a moment. I looked down the rug and walked down it. Everyone takes their places. Paris and Haidi ran to on top of the steps. As I made it up, Haidi gave me something. It was a new robe. The panels on this one had sharper ends than the square ends on the regular ones. On the left shoulder, there was a metallic plate and attached to the plate was a cape that extended to the waist. “Django Hunter. Son of Mordecai, last guardian before you, you had suffered emotional and physically abuse over the years.” Is she talking about the bullying at school? How’d she know that? Fate must have told her. I later learned that this is how elite leaders are inaugurated. The person with the highest rank announces the soon-to-be leader’s disabilities and past and the challenges they overcame. “Found the mask of dimensions, fought Logan and fought with us up to this point. Welcome to the Zodian Corps.” I took off my robe and put on the new one. The feel of it was great. I felt like a new me.   
“We protect the innocent, and fight the evil.” I said. “We are the Aura Readers. We work in the shadows, to bring back the light.” 

Later, there was a party in my honor. The next day, I was about to set out on my mission. Callen was with me after I said my possible last goodbyes to Fate and Paris.  
“You come back alive. You get it?” He told me.  
“I’ll make sure of that.” I told him.   
“What are we going to do when this all over?” He asked me. I didn’t know myself.   
“I’ll let you know when I think of something.” I told him.

I made it to the bridge leading the Cephus district. The bridge was heavily guarded. I need to sneak in undetected or else it’ll alert Wolf. I dived into the water and swum to the other side. I climbed up the wall and went to the gate leading into the tower courtyard. The HQ is a large tower. Surrounding it is the courtyard. In the courtyard are several houses. This used to be homes to top Aura Readers. After going through the gate, I was in the entry area. The gate to the courtyard was locked and I couldn’t use my aura grip. I saw a latter leading to the out wall. I climbed and used the mind-link on the guards. I climbed up to the wall that overlooks the courtyard. When I got there, Blake busted through the gates of the entry area. Two guards came out of the gate and were surprised to see Blake there.   
“Master! You returned.”  
“Yes, where’s Wolf?”  
“Ahh. The pest. He’s in the tower’s conference room. And we left him the way you wanted.”  
“Perfect. His ass is mine after what he done.” Blake said as he went through the gate. The guard went through the gate too. As I went through the wall, I used my new time power I got from the aura key. I focused some energy into my hand and fired a sharp beam of energy at a guard. I overlooked the courtyard. There was the tower. I saw the door and made my way to it. I used my aura grip on this one and I managed to open it. I was in some basement. Above me, I heard Natalie’s voice.  
“Solider, why is everyone on code 10 guard?”  
“The master is back.”  
“Oh. Blake didn’t tell me he returned.” There was some seductive in her voice. If I had to guess, she and Blake were having an affair. I climbed up to the trap door and found myself in some armory. I looked behind me and I saw my star blade. Blake must’ve put it here on display. I took it off its display case and put it in the sling in my sling pack. It feels so good to have this thing again. I went out the door and made it to a corridor. The left went downstairs and the right went upstairs. I went upstairs and was in a hallway. I went to my left and see another stair case. I went up that one. It leads to a library. There were guards here. One on the ground floor; and one up in the balcony. I used my new time sniper to snipe the one on ground level and quickly climbed to the balcony and used the mind-link on him. I went out the window and held on to the ledge. I saw the window looking into the conference room. I shimmy my way to the window. I saw Wolf at table. He was leaning over a bowl of apples. Blake came in angry.  
“What is the meaning of this!?” He yelled. Wolf was calm like he didn’t do anything. So innocent.  
“I don’t know what you mean.” He said.  
“My funds! My troops! All gone!” He yelled  
“The economy strikes all of us. Even those with an army.”  
“What happened to Franco and Baron? Did you –“  
“What reason could I had for killing them? The Zodians killed them.”  
“Why didn’t you stop them!?”   
“I was busy trying to make sure the people didn’t rebel against us!”  
“Looks like your failing. Cause they are out there, disrespecting our authority!” Blake takes an apple and takes a bite out of it. “And now I heard from my troops that you have a warehouse with documents on selling my Dark Reader soldiers! And with assassination plans against me!” Wolf just smiles. Natalie comes through the door. She looked like she just came back from running.  
“Blake! He intends to poison you!” She yelled. Blake looks at the apple he ate. He then realizes that Wolf poisoned the apple. He tries to split it out. But he kneels down from the poison.  
“You honestly think I liked serving you?” Wolf said “You are not part of God’s plan. I am His loyal servant. I follow no one else.” Blake chuckles and stands back up. “What? The poison --”  
“-- is ineffective. I’m not a normal human. Poison can’t kill me. I should’ve killed you when I had the chance.” Blake’s swords come out of his gauntlets.   
“If you kill me, you’ll never find the last key I hid.”   
“You had the last key!?” Blake grabs him and points his sword at him. “Where is the time key!?” Natalie grabs Blake, trying to get him to let go of her father.  
“Stop!” She yells. “I’ll tell you where it is!” Blake lets go of Wolf. He’s trying to catch his breath. Now he pins Natalie to a wall.  
“You knew he had it and you didn’t tell me!?” Blake said. Natalie tries holds her hand to his head.  
“Blake, it’s me; your queen.” I knew it. They did had a thing.  
“You are a pawn in my game. And nothing more.” She gets a shocked look on her face.  
“You… You never loved me?” Wolf tries to get up.  
“Let go of my daughter!” He says. He forms his dual sided trident and attacks Blake. Blake doesn’t even turn. He just moves his arm towards Wolf and his blade comes out of his gauntlet and strikes Wolf in the heart. Wolf falls down. Natalie screams.  
“Now where is the key!?” I have to do something. He’s about to kill her. I see another window on the other side. I climb up and run across the roof to the window. I jump down to the room and see Blake gone. Natalie leans on the wall trying to get a hold of herself. She sees me but doesn’t even react. I walk over to Wolf and close his eyes.   
“I know.” She coughs. “Where that bastard’s going.”   
“Where?” I ask her  
“In the district, there’s a market place. The building that overlooks it has a courtyard. In the yard, there’s an egg statue. Inside the statue, is where the key is. That’s where he is heading.” I look at her for a moment.  
“Thank you.” I say as I walk out of the room.  
“You’re not going to kill me?” She asks.   
“I didn’t come here to kill you.” I told her. 

I run downstairs and made it to the corridor again. I went down the stairs and saw Blake going through a steel gate. He sees me.  
“Django…” He says  
“Crap.” I say.  
“I’ll deal with you later.” He says as he locks the gate. I try using my aura grip but the gate must be made of the small metal Wolf used to trap me. I look up and see another trap door. I climb up. When I got there, there was a spiral staircase. I went up it and it opened up into the wall. I jump out and land in the wall. I look down at the courtyard and see Darkwatch and Ark Raiders are fighting each other. So much for the truce. I look over the Cephus district. I jump off the wall and run across the rooftops to the market place. I made it to the egg statue. I use my aura sense and see one part of the statue glowing with someone’s aura. I touch that area and it panel opened. I reach inside and I pull out the key; the last one. I hear a slow clapping sound. I look behind me and see Blake.   
“Well, well, well. Look who became elite leader.” He said. His guards accompanied him. “To think, I’m looking at the kid that never fought back.”  
“To think, I’m looking at my best friend.” I told him back.  
“Yes. Look at us. We both managed to get to a position of power.”  
“The only difference is that I’m not the corrupt one.” I said. Blake just chuckles.  
“Django, you’re still blind to everything. We both want the same thing. Peace.”  
“Dark Readers are so quick to talk peace. But when it comes to power, they instantly become corrupt.”  
“With power comes peace, you idiot!”  
“Yeah, keep saying that.”  
“I’m sorry, Django. If you won’t join me willingly, I’ll have to do the desperate.” He nods at his men. They pull out a device and they press the button. The next second, I hear a massive explosion. It’s in the direction of the Zodian HQ. “You think I didn’t know about your hideout!? I had my spies set up charges on the building.”  
“Fate and the rest…” The thought of them being burned in flames plaques my mind. I can’t bear to think of it. I nearly get a panic attack from seeing Fate being burned alive.   
“I hate to see Fate burn as much as you do. But you forced my hand, Django.” I look at him with my aura sense eyes.   
“Blake, I swear to god, I will kill you.” I say to him.   
“Shame you won’t get the chance. We finally have the keys. We’re almost to getting to the Core. All we need is the last key.” He points to the key I’m holding.  
“You want this!?” I yell. “You’ll have to take pry it from my dead hands.”  
“It would be painful. But you leave me no choice.”   
Before any fighting begun, a blast of fire hit Blake. I look at the rooftops to see Paris.   
“Ahh. Paris. You’ve been a thorn at my side for a long time.” Blake says  
“Hello, Blake.” Paris says. “Sorry but I can’t stay and chat.” He throws more fire at him. “Django! Come on!”  
“Get him!” Blake yells.   
I run across the rooftops, following Paris. Why is he here? Did he get out before the explosion?

We escape the district. I need to know what happened. Is Callen, Fate, or Haidi alive?  
“Paris. What happened? Is everyone alive?” I ask.  
“Yes. We managed to escape. They’re at the new base. Come on.” It was glad to know that Fate and everyone else is alive. But Blake is going too far. I will find the bastard. And I’m going to kill him.


	17. Divine Mind

I followed Paris to the base everyone retreated to. It was on top of a hill overlooking Paldia. There was an observatory on top of the hill that served as our base. When we went inside, I looked around for Fate or Callen. The inside was like a large laboratory. But it’s the some layout as the old base.   
“Django!” I heard Fate yell. She ran over to me and hugged me. I hugged her back. I saw Callen with his daughter.   
“What happened here?” I asked her.  
“A few minutes after you left, we found charges throughout the building.” Fate explained. “They were timed charges and too dangerous to defuse so we escaped. But Callen’s daughter was still in the building. He went back for her. Long story short, she’s traumatized. Let’s say Callen cut it close.” I read the aura of Lexie. She was shaking and Callen was trying to calm her. Blake syas he’s trying to make peace. But how’s all of this suppose to create it?  
“Everyone! Ops meeting!” I heard Eric say upstairs. I saw Callen telling her daughter that he’ll be back. She hands her over to Nami and tells her to watch her while he goes to the meeting.   
When he passes by me, he asks “So how’d it go?”  
“Blake’s a terrible host.”

We went the meeting room. Again, same layout as the Ops center.   
“Ok, we have some serious bad news guys.” Eric starts off. “Blake is going on a rampage and is heading to the space and time towers.” The space and time towers are at the center of Paldia. The time tower is light blue while the space tower is purple. The two represent what they are named for: space and time.  
“Why is he going there?” I ask him  
“We don’t know.” Eric says.  
“Paris and I believe that the space and time towers are where the entrance to the Core is” Haidi explains.  
“Well it’s useless. We have the last key. He can’t open the portal.” I tell them.  
“He doesn’t need it.” Paris says. What does he mean? “Those two blades he has, they are another key.”  
“What are you talking about?” I asked him. What was he talking about? He said he needed the key I found in the Cephus district. Was that a trick?  
“The blades he has belonged to the first Dark Reader. Similar to your star blade, your blade is crafted by the time reader, and Blake’s blades were made by the first Dark Reader.” Paris explained.  
“Darkwatch is now in control of the space and time towers.” Eric said  
“But he has demands.” Haidi said  
“Demands? How can he have demands without hostages?” Fate asked  
“He sent us a message. Saying he won’t go to the Core unless we surrender to him.” What? No. No, we can’t have that. I can’t let Blake win. I look down at the key I had: the time key. I thought back to how Blake and I were friends. How can my best friend turn into that?   
“I’ll beat him.” I told everyone. Everyone was staring at me. God, I hate that. “We have the final key. I can gain more power. It can defeat him.”  
“You sure you can do that, Django?” Haidi asks me.  
“What do mean?” I ask her  
“Can you absorb the power from that key?” What is she talking about?  
“Of course I can. I managed to absorb the others.” I tell her.  
“Then try it. If you’re so confident” She tells me. What the hell is she saying? Is there some ritual to do in order to absorb this key? And how would she know? She may be mysterious, but how can Haidi know anything about this? This has got to be out of her knowledge range. Nevertheless, I grip the key with both hands. And pour my aura into it to release the lock that’s keeping its power buried. I was anticipating an overload of energy being struck into me like with the others.   
But nothing. There’s nothing. The key remains unmoved by what I’ve done. It didn’t even recognize aura.   
“What’s going on?” I ask myself. Everyone stares at me. They are as much as confused as I am. This isn’t right. The key should be reacting in some way. Haidi turns to Paris.   
“You were right. He needs to open the barrier before he can absorb this one.” What? Barrier?  
“Barrier? What are you talking about?” I ask her.  
“The reason you were able to release the other keys is that they were keys to open the real seal to the portal to the Core. More like… the situation is a key within a key or something like that.” Haidi tells me.  
“Ok. So this key is the real key to open the Core?”  
“According to Paris’s studies, the five keys represent the five elements: Wind, water, earth, fire and spirit. They open another key slot. The time goes into that one. Therefore, it’ll need more than what you usually do to open it.” Haidi finishes.  
“But what is this barrier you’re talking about?”   
“You see, in all humans, we have an ‘auric barrier web’ this barrier holds back our, what the Chinese monks called, Chi. For an Aura Reader’s case, it opens true power. You need that to absorb that key.”  
“Ok, how do I open the barrier?”  
“You’ll have to spend time in spiritual training I prepared. But Django, it is very dangerous. You’ll have to go to places in your mind where you never want to go. It’ll reopen old wounds you have had in the past. You could have a total mental breakdown. You already have the five other keys absorbed. You could face Blake now. It might be enough.” Haidi tells me. Reopen old wounds? I don’t want to explore my past if that’s what she’s thinking. But I know I’m not strong enough. I need to absorb what power the time key holds.  
”I’ll do it.” I tell Haidi. She stares at me deciding wither or not she should train me for this.  
“Ok, but don’t say I never warned you. Meet me on the roof.” She says. She ten exits the room.  
“Django, you sure you can do this. She sounded like it could seriously hurt you.” Fate tells me.  
“Don’t worry.” I kiss her on the forehead. “I’ll be fine.”

I went up to the roof. We were under the telescope. It was nice and dark. But we have tomorrow to tell Blake our answer. During this time, I’ll be preparing myself.   
“Sit, Django.” Haidi tells me. There’s a carpet here. I sit on the carpet with my legs crossed. “The auric barrier is located outside your aura field.” She begins to explain. “You actually saw it on many people when you use your aura sense. There are seals on the auric barrier that block the hidden powers of an individual. To unlock them, you have to go through each one, one by one”   
“How do I unlock it?” I ask.   
“You’ll see. But I’m warning you. This progress is dangerous. Once you go, you can’t go back.” It’s like she’s trying to protect from whatever will happen out of this. But I can’t let it scare me.  
“I’m ready.” I tell her.  
“Ok. Close your eyes and focus on what I say.” I close my eyes and listen to her. “We’ll do the physical seal. It deals with self comfort, but is blocked by self harm. Django, have you ever harmed yourself?” I felt my stomach turn as she said that. I opened my eyes and carefully look under my arm. For years, I have hidden it from everyone. From Uncle Marc, Fate, everyone. All of those years of bullying and loniness have forced my hand. Or should I say razor?  
“See what I mean?” Haidi says. “This progress is hard to do.”  
“All of those years… They had made me like this.” I show her the cuts on my underarm.   
“Some people cut themselves to try and kill off the pain. But it only causes more pain. But those scars can also be a fragment of your past. The past that you have overcome.” Haidi tells me. For some reason, her telling me her wisdom comforts me and my old issues. “Now, close your eyes imagine the people who had made you cut yourself. And tell them ‘I won’t let you win’” I now knew what she meant by that. If I were to hurt myself, that would mean that They would win. I think back to when I used that razor, I can imagine the bullies laughing at me. Then I imagine myself throwing it away.   
“I won’t let you win.” I tell myself. In that moment, I feel like a great weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I look at my cuts and I see they are disappearing. That seal must have powered up my healing powers.   
“Good, you have opened the physical seal.” Haidi says. We move on. “Next is the Etheric seal. This deals with self respect, and is blocked by low self-esteem. Django, what do you think of yourself?” What do I think of myself?  
“Someone who shouldn’t be here. Just another soldier.” I tell myself. I always feel like me being on this planet is only endangering everyone around me. If I wasn’t born, Fate would never be dragged into this.   
“No. Everyone is here for a reason. Faith has set us on this world for us to complete what we want to do. Even those ‘born by mistake’ have a purpose. But that purpose isn’t set in stone. It’s what you want it to be. Django, what do you think your destiny is?” This whole time, I thought I HAD to be guardian and protect everyone. But now, its not I HAVE to. It’s I WANT to.   
“… To defeat Blake. To protect everyone.” I tell her. I feel another weight off of my shoulders.   
“You have opened the Etheric seal.” Haidi said. “You ready to move on?”   
“Yes.”  
“Ok. Next is the Vital seal. It deals with the rational mind, and is blocked by illusion. The most famous illusion over the course of the world is how we see each other. We have always fought each other. Mainly because of race. But the problem with everyone is that humans always organize everything we see. But the thing we tend to forget is –“  
“--We’re all the same.” I cut her off. I understand what she’s saying.  
“Exactly. We are all human. Another illusion is how the Aura Reader views the elements. You and I see six elements. But really, they are all connected; the same.”   
“We’re connected… everything – everyone -- is connected.”   
“Yes, Another illusion is death. We think our loved ones are gone. We think they all left us. But that is not true. They’re bodies may be gone, but they are still around us all.” This explains why I see people that aren’t there. I started to understand everything. Those people I keep seeing, they are dead Aura Readers whose spirits wonder around in our world.   
“They are not gone…”   
“Exactly. But the deaths of past loved ones are replaced by a new love.” I think about Fate and how she kept my sanity from going out of control. I start to tear a bit. I feel another weight off my shoulders.   
“Good, you have unlocked the Vital seal.” Haidi says “But things will get harder. You ready?”  
“Let’s go.” I say as I wipe the tears out of my eyes.   
“Ok. Next is the Astral seal. It deals with relation to others and is blocked by loneness. Django, what makes you feel lonely?” This part must’ve been the most difficult part of the training.   
I think back to in 1st grade. I was being bullied by a couple of kids on the play ground. They pushed me to the ground. I was so tired of everything, I wanted to stay there. I never had a father or mother to tell me what to do. Or how to get over it. I only had Marc. He helped somewhat but I never wanted my father more than anything in that moment. I thought they were going to kick me even more. But I felt a shadow. I looked up and see a little girl. She put herself between me and them.   
“If you hurt him anymore, you’ll regret it!” The girl said. The others backed off. She helped me up. I asked her who she is. “My name is Fate.” That is how Fate and I meet. From that day on, we were inseparable. She was my only friend and I was her only friend. As I got older, I started to fall for her more and more. In middle school, the jocks were picking on us. We both couldn’t do anything. But then, the quarterback told them to stop and get out of there. Since he was the quarterback, they listened. He help us both up.   
“What’s your name?”  
“Blake” And that is how we met Blake. He started to hang with us. We were the best friends. In fact, with him around, the jocks stopped picking on us. But the day I hated the most came: the 8th grade dance. I was going to ask Fate to go with me. I was finally going to drop the bomb: to ask her to be mine. But when I turned the corner with the flowers in my hand, I saw Blake asking her to go. She was silent for a second, but she said yes. At the dance, Fate and I locked eyes. She knew I was alone. But when her and Blake were about to dance, she looked back to him and I got the hell out of there. That day was hardest day for me to face.   
“That day.” I tell Haidi after I snapped back to reality.   
“That day is now gone. The past is done and there’s nothing you can do to change it. But you and Fate are now together. Time to forget and move on. You know have a new family.” Haidi explains to me. I imagine that day again. I take Fate and Blake and throw them in a fire. Forgetting that part of my life. I then imagine Fate in my arms and giggling. Something she never did with Blake. I also remember my parents. But they are not gone. My father still watches over me. And I have a new family. Callen, Fate, Haidi and everyone. They are my new family. With that lonely feeling gone, I feel another weight off my back. “Good, you have released the Astral seal.”  
“How did you know about Fate and me?” I ask her before me move on. She just chuckles.  
“We girls tell each other everything.” Haidi says “And don’t you forget it”   
“Uhh, let’s move on.”  
“The next seal is the mental seal. It deals with divine will and is blocked by lies. The lies we tell ourselves. What do you lie to yourself about?” The one thing I lie to myself about…  
 _“No, I don’t want this responsibility, Uncle Marc.”_  
“I never wanted to be Aura Guardian.” I tell Haidi.  
“You can’t lie to yourself about what you are. You are the Aura Guardian. The only person who can save everyone.” She’s right. I can’t keep lying to myself about who I am. I am the Aura Guardian.   
“I am the Guardian.” I tell myself.  
“You have unlocked the Mental seal.” Haidi said. “We have one more to do.  
“One more?” I ask  
“Yes. Django, I am impressed. Most people couldn’t handle the pressure of this progress. But the last one is the toughest of them all. Are you ready?” I take in a deep breath.  
“Let’s do it.”  
“The last seal: the spiritual seal. It deals with divine mind, but is blocked by attachment.” Wait, attachment? “Think of what keeps you on this world.” I instantly imagine Fate. “Now detach them from your mind. Like in a river and watch them float away; forgotten.” Wait, forgotten? I wake up from my trance.  
“Whoa! Wait, are you telling me I have to cut Fate from my life?”   
“If you want to unlock the last seal, you have to do so. This is what I meant by this progress is dangerous.”  
“Wait, wait, how is forgetting about her a good thing? Two seals ago, that was a good thing!”  
“I’m sorry, Django, it must be done. You can’t turn back.”  
“No. I’m sorry, Haidi. But I love Fate too much to let her go.” I take out the time key. And stand back up.  
“Django! By stopping the progress, you have locked the seal, if you leave now, you’ll never gain the power you need!” I remain silent.   
“Sorry Haidi.” I tell her. I grip the key and pour my energy into it. This time, it was a success. The energy pours itself into me. But the pain of the recoil is even greater than the others. I fall to the ground and go into my coma again.

I’m in some giant white and black room. It seems endless, never ending. In the distance, I see someone. He wore a black and white robe and had the star blade. This man is my ancestor. The one who I saw in my visions the other keys showed me.  
“Well, I never expected you here.” He says  
“Are you my –“  
“Ancestor? Yes.”  
“Who are you? And what is this?”  
“I am the first Guardian. This is your subconscious.”  
“What’s going on here?”  
“The keys you have absorbed, all were imprinted with a part of my life. I showed you those moments because they all had a lesson for you.”  
“What lesson?”  
“To never show mercy. I know about the situation in the present day because I have foreseen it.”  
“You have? How?”   
“I am a Time Reader after all.”  
“Time Readers? I never heard of those.” He laughs.  
“How can you not know what you already are?”  
“Wait. You mean these new powers I have?”  
“Yes. You always had them. The keys you absorbed jumpstarted them.” So that explains my time powers.  
“Time Readers are born rarely. Legends have it, that the god of time, Dia, who looks over time itself, gives unborn Aura Readers the gift of time. I was born with these powers. Django, I’m here to tell you, never show mercy to Blake. You must do what needs to be done.”  
“What are you saying?”  
“You must kill Blake. But most of all don’t let him use the Core.” I know I don’t like him. But can I actually kill him? I said I will kill him but no one means it. But can I? And what did he mean by don’t let him use the Core?   
“Of course I won’t let him use the Core. He’ll use it to make the Dark Readers stronger. But I’ll use it to save my kind.”  
“No! You can’t use it!”  
“Why not!?”  
“Cause it was never meant to move time! Only maintain it!” It can’t control time?  
“What happens when it is used to control time?” I asked. He was silent for a second.  
“It would cause a ripple that would destroy the Core. And when the Core is destroyed, so is existence.” What? More than world’s at stake then; more than the galaxy, more than the universe. Existence itself is on the line. 

I woke up on the couch near Callen’s cubicle. I needed to tell Paris about what I knew about the Core. I asked Callen where he was but he went out.   
“How was Haidi special training?” He asked me.  
“Great.” I lied. Not so great. But I managed to absorb the last key. When I least expected it, Fate appeared out of now where and hugged me tighter than she usually does. “What’s with you? I’m fine.”  
“Haidi told me what happened all those years ago.” She said with tears in her eyes. “I wanted you to take me to that dance. But I thought you didn’t like me like that.”  
“Funny, I thought you didn’t like me like that.” I told myself. Then it hit me. “Wait, you told you about that?”  
“Haidi did.” She said. I had a freaked look on my face. “Relax Django, girls tell each other everything.” Callen chuckled. 

Later, Fate and I sat together alone on the roof. Same place where I did my spiritual journey.   
“So you loved me since I saved you that day?” Fate asked  
“Maybe.” I said. She lightly hits me on the shoulder. “Why did you help me?” I asked her and she hold me closer.  
“Because I saw how you were always alone. I felt bad. I couldn’t dare to see those jackasses hurt you. She explained. “And what happened after that is what sparked my attraction to you in the first place.” I remember that moment. After a few weeks, Fate showed me her secret. She always covers her right eye with her bangs. She showed me that behind that was a different color eye. It was the reason she was as alone as I was. Everyone thought of her as a freak. When we discovered we were Aura Readers, we realized that that eye is the eye that Aura Readers switch to so we can use Aura Sense.  
But what happened when I first saw it was I thought it was cool and awesome. That day, she was in tears and held on to me.   
“Well, I still think that it looks badass.” I told her. She holds on to me tighter.  
“You’re too good for me. You know that right?”  
“Funny. I was going to say the same thing about me with you.” She kissed me on the cheek. I wished that night would never end. But I knew that as soon as that sun rose, the final battle would begin.


	18. Masters of Time and Space

As the sun rose, I stood there readying myself. The final fight is about to happen.   
“You ready for this?” Callen asked me.  
“Yes. I am. But the real question is are you ready? You’ll be facing an whole army.” I told him.  
“I’ll just sneak my way through. Like we always do.” Callen said. He then patted my shoulder. “Just don’t die.”  
“I’ll make sure I keep that promise.” I told him. Fate gave me one last hug.  
“You’d better keep it.” She said  
“I will.” I told her. I stood at the edge of the roof. The plan was to take separate paths to the towers to thin Blake’s army. “Everyone ready?” They all nodded in agreement.   
“Today will be a great day.” Paris said.  
“Yes it will.” I told him. I jumped down to the ground and made my way to the towers. 

As I started to see the towers in the distance, I saw Darkwatch and the Ark Raiders fighting. We’ll take advantage of this and sneak to the towers. But there is something else down there. I see the Tainted. Great, I guess without Wolf controlling them, They’re going on a rampage. But they seem to be attacking Darkwatch and the Ark Raiders only. Not the people. Maybe it’s because they feel threaten by the fighting; they think the two sides are fighting them. Whatever it is, there is not many. Haidi told me they’ll find a way to get cure them.  
With the fighting going on, I try to run rooftop to rooftop to the towers. But I guess someone must have seen me, because I’m pushed to the ground level by Dark Readers. I pull out my sword and get ready. One, who was probably a Lightning Reader, attacked me fast with two daggers. I parry them and use the wind push on them. Another tries to strike. I side-step to the right, roll over his back, while I rolled over, I stuck my blade into him. I then used my time sniper quickly to pick off the next guy to me. While I was distracted, A Metal Reader tries to hit me with his big hammer, I quickly swipe my sword under his feet, causing him to trip, and I finish him with a stab to the back.  
With that done, I try to run to the tower. But when I pass a 4-way crosswalk, an energy beam hits me and I hit the ground. I look over to see the Scorpion-like Tainted attacked me. This thing again. I fire some aura missiles but he dodges them with ease and he jumps high in the air and pins me to the cement. I thought he would kill me, but then, I feel the impact of a rocket launcher hitting the monster. I take this chance and throw my star blade into him, killing him. I look over to see the Ark Raiders. What were they doing? Why not let it finish me? A sniper prepares his rifle. I ready myself, but when the shot fired, they missed me completely. I turned around to see a Lightning Reader about to kill me. The sniper was aiming for him. I get a call from my radio.  
“Consider that a favor” A voice said. I recognized it instantly.  
“Natalie?”   
“Yeah.”  
“So you have a change of heart?”  
“I’m just doing what my father wanted: to protect this place. But I’m learning form his mistakes. We’re on your side, Guardian.”  
“Thanks.”  
“I alerted your team about the Ark Raiders new alliance. And Django?”  
“Yea?”  
“Kick that bastard’s ass for me.”  
“I’ll do a whole more than kick it.”  
“Thank you.”

As I was getting closer to the towers, I saw Fate, Callen and Paris fighting Darkwatch and Tainted. I assist in the battle. But Rocket launchers from the roof tops scare the troops and they run for it. We look up to the Ark Raiders. Looks like they are helping us.  
“Hey it’s the Guardian!” I hear them say as we make it to the towers.  
“Go get ‘em, Aura Reader!” 

Me and everyone else made it to the towers. Eric told us that they held up the space tower. We run to the front door.  
“You ready?” Paris asks me. I’m starting to get sick of people asking me that.  
“Yes. I am. I’m ready to face him.” I use an aura push on the door and it flies open. We enter the tower. The first floor as five columns at the corners of the room looking like a star. We look around but we don’t see anyone here. Then we all feel a gun to our heads.  
“Drop your weapons.” The soldier told us. Then Darkwatch troops come out of nowhere. I hear something give a slow clapping noise. Blake emerges from a shadow and walks up to us.  
“I suggest you drop them” He says. With no choice, we do as we were told. We took out our weapons and kick them away from us. The troops near us take them and put them in their holders. They prepared for this. They knew we would come. But if they knew, why would they wait for an answer on our surrender? “I’m so glad all of you could make it.”   
“What’s going on, Blake?” I ask him. “Why are you letting us live? All you have to do is say it and we’ll be out of your way.”  
“Not yet, Django.” He says. “I want to see the look on your face when we go to the Core and make sure you die knowing that you had a chance to live. But wasted it.”  
“You do know that’s how all movies, books and games go, right?”  
“This is reality, Django. In reality, the heroes never win”  
“So you admit that you’re the bad guy?” I ask him. He remains silent.  
“Moving on.” He says. He just ignored my question. He takes out the keys he stole from the Zodian Corps. The keys I absorbed. “Time to visit where it all began.” He walks to the one of the column to the left of us. “Wind.” He says as he places the wind key in. The column glows in a silver color and the wind symbol glows. He walks to the other that’s to the left. “Water.” The column glows blue and the water symbol appears. He walks to the right side and places the earth key in one of them. “Earth.” Column glows brown and the symbol for earth appears. Blake walks upward and places the fire key in another column. “Fire.” He places in the fire key and the column glows red. The symbol for fire appears. Two more. He walks to the column directly in front of us, but just several feet away. “And spirit.” He places the aura key in and the column turns into in a rainbow color. The anticipation is killing us. He moves to the center of the room. His blades extend. “And time.” He jams his blades into the floor and a part of it rotates. The columns glow brighter and a spiral staircase opens besides Blake. “Come on then” He says as his men take us downstairs. The staircase was dark. But it got darker going down. Blake lights the torches with his flame. When we reached the bottom floor, there was some ark. “Do you see it?”  
“We have eyes, Blake.” Paris comments  
“Oh believe me that sarcastic tone of yours will lessen when we show you the power of this.” Blake says. I just need to know something   
“How?” I ask him.   
“What do you mean?” He asks back  
“How are you Logan’s son? What are the chances that our best friend was a Dark Reader?” I ask him. Blake just grins and laughs a little.  
“Oh. Faith works in mysterious ways. But you want to know how? I’ll tell all of you since this will be the last thing that happens to you.” He says. “You absorbed the keys, you seen the memories of Nui.”  
“Nui?”  
“The first Time Reader.” He starts to explain. “As you already know, he was betrayed by Solo, his best friend. Solo made the Dark Readers and started the Dark Aura War. But what you might not know is that they both had children. Their bloodlines continued on. As time moved on, so did the bloodline. Each Aura Guardian before you all trained. As well as Solo’s bloodline. Each always fighting each other. At first, they need about their ancestry. But as centuries went on, they started to forget. But about 60 years ago, Solo’s decestant, a girl, her parents died without knowing her bloodline. Eventually, she discovered she was Dark Reader. But the problem was she thought she was an Aura Reader. Those years, that’s when Darkwatch started change their means of getting a leader since their master’s bloodline was gone. The girl eventually met another Aura Reader; they fell in love and had two children: two sons. One of them was Logan: my father.”   
“Logan had a brother?”  
“Yes. During the invasion he killed his brother. Before your fight with him, he came to me. He revealed to me my destiny, my inner power. He told me everything he knew. But you want to know what exactly he told me?” I was afraid of the answer. “He told me.” He walked over to me. “‘If anything were to happen to me, if Django were to beat me, you’ll rise to power and control of all six cities, and if Django refuses to join our cause and fights you. Don’t hold back. Don’t hold back against my brother’s son.’” Those words. Those three words almost made me collapse. Fate and Callen were all surprised as I was. But Paris’s was… unmoved.  
“No.” I told myself  
“Yes.” Blake said  
“No, no, no! Logan is not my uncle!” I yelled  
“Yes he is. Mordecai and Logan were brothers. Best friends. But frankly I’m surprised you don’t know.”  
“What do you mean?” I ask him.   
“Paris knew. He was friends with them.” I looked at Paris. His gaze was trying to avoid me.  
“You knew?” I asked him  
“Dad, answer him!” Fate demanded  
“I didn’t think you would like the answer.” He manages to say.  
“You knew and you didn’t tell me… You knew a lot of things about my kind and you barely told me.”  
“I hate to interrupt but we’re wasting time.” Blake’s black aura is now visible. It surround’s his arms as he pours his energy into the ark. The ark glows light blue and the a light blue mass fills the ark. Almost like a portal.  
“No! Blake! You don’t understand the stakes in this!”  
“Scared that you will lose the war, Django?” Blake asks me.  
“No! The Core was never meant to control time! Only maintain it! If you would use it, it would destroy the Core! And if the Core is gone, so is the heart of existence! Existence would be destroyed!” The faces from everyone in the room: Fate’s, Callen’s, Paris’s, even the Darkwatch troops were shocked. But Blake wasn’t. He just laughs.  
“Please, Django. The Core obviously moves time.”  
“No, it doesn’t! It was meant to just be there. Not to move it!” I look at Paris. “I was going to tell you, but you wouldn’t let me. When I absorbed the time key, Nui came to me. He told me to stop Blake at all costs. But most importantly, don’t let him use the Core.” Blake laughs even louder.   
“Please! Trying to psych me out? Not going to work. Men! Let’s bring them with us.” The troops poke us, telling us to move. We entered the portal. The energy was bright. As I past through, I had to close my eyes. When we made it to the other side, we were in some chamber. It was slightly dark. The walls were gold and light blue. “See down that hallway?” Blake asks us. “Once we exit this chamber, we’ll be in for a real shock.” As we walked up the hall, Paris tries to get close to me. He whispers something to me.  
“Django, is what you say true? The core would destroy everything if we used it.”  
“I’m sorry, Paris. We would be able to save our kind.”  
“It’s ok. You prevented me from making a mistake. Bigger than my other one.” I look over to Fate and mouth “It’ll be ok” Blake took us out the door. And what we see… My god it was beautiful. Tons of golden and light blue metal pathways everywhere. Some floating in mid air. There were trees everywhere and some waterfalls and the sky? There was no sky. Just space itself. I could see the stars and nebulas. Everything you can think of in space, you could see it here. It was just so wonderful. Too bad Blake is going to destroy it.  
“You see, everyone!? I told you it was real! And now, our dream will become reality!” Blake began to tell his men. “In the center of the Core, there is the time chamber! We’ll travel through time and make sure the Dark Readers rise to power for good!” Some cheered. Others were thinking about what I said earlier about how the Core could destroy everything. “And now that you have seen it” He applies to Fate, Callen, Paris, and I. “You will die knowing I beat you.”  
“Django, I’m sorry.” Paris tells me.  
“Well that’s nobile: our last words.” I say back  
“It’s been nice fighting along side you guys” Callen says  
“Django?” Fate asks  
“No.” Paris says. “Now its time to correct my mistake.” In the next second, Paris elbows the guy behind him and uses a heat wave to push him away. The troopers who have their guns pointed at us get shocked. Paris quickly uses his aura grip on them and throws him aside. He uses his aura grip on our weapons and throws them to us. We grab them. And fight the rest of the soldiers.  
“No! Retreat to the time chamber!” Blake yells. The rest of the soldiers retreat to the chamber.  
“You won’t get away with this” Paris says. He uses his jet-boots and attacks Blake. But grabs his head with his one hand.   
“On the contrary, I will. You will regret that move.” Blake says. In the next second, Blake’s blade extends and he stabs Paris. All of our eyes widen. Paris falls to the ground.  
“Django…” Paris says as he hits the ground. Anger fills up in me. I look over to Blake. He just laughs.   
“He got in my way.” My Aura Sense eyes start to flare up. “I’ll see you at the time chamber, Django. It’ll be a battle for the history books.” He disappears. We run over to Paris.  
“Paris, stay with me!” I yell as I try to pass my healing aura to him. But he’s still losing blood. Fate goes down next to me and tries to use her aura to heal him too. But it’s nothing. Callen tries the same thing. He pulls out some bandages and tries to cover up the cut. Trying to prevent more blood loss.  
“I’m sorry.” Paris says.  
“For what?” I ask  
“For our kind. My stupid mistake. I spend years trying to find the Core to undo it. But now only to realize if I did use it, existence would be no more. All of those years, wasted”  
“It was not wasted, Paris!” I told him.  
“Quit lying. It was. But maybe this will fix that. Django, Fate.” He grabs on to me. Fate is about to cry. “Django, protect my daughter. Protect everyone.” I nod. “Fate, you made me proud. I’m sure you two will have great children. Django, Fate, Callen. Protect our future.” Paris says as he lays there. His heart beat stops and his eyes remain open. I put my hand over his eyes and close.  
“Rest in peace, Paris. May the afterlife treat you well.” I say. Fate holds on to me and cries. Callen closes his eyes. I look over to a section of where we were. There’s some actually ground. I carry Paris’s body and walk over there. Rage begins to fill me. I think back to when Blake invaded Ace city, when he killed Marc. I read the earth to make a hole. I use my aura on the metal and try to make a coffin.   
“I never really got to know you. I sometimes thought you were stubborn. But I always respected your pride. Now I know your mistake, I finally understand.” I tell him even though he can’t hear me. I make the coffin and place his body in it. I cross his arms. And lower the coffin in the ground. “At least you and my father can see each other once again.” Fate and Callen stand beside me. I cover the coffin with the dirt and take Paris sword and place it as a gravestone. I dig it deep in place.   
“Guys, we’re going to stop Blake.” I tell them.  
“But what do we do?” Callen asks me. I point to the highest chamber I see. There are some chamber-like things here.   
“There. We’ll go there and look for the Core.”  
“Let’s do it for Paris” Fate says  
“After you elite leader” Callen says.

But the journey wasn’t easy. There were Darkwatch troops blocking us. We had to fight our way to there. Eventually, we made it. We went through the chamber door and we entered a giant chamber. It was practically a library.   
“Where are we?” Fate asks.  
“Some library.” I say. In the center, there was some shrine like the ones in the temples in the cities. “Now what’s this?”  
“Looks like the shrine in the Ace temple.” Fate says. I place my hand on it and a hologram appears in the room.   
“Whoa! What’s this?” Callen asks.  
“I think this thing is telling us the history of the Aura Readers.” I tell him  
“What does it say?” Fate asked. There were words in the Aura Reader language. I studied it from Uncle Marc two years ago.   
“’Long ago, in the void of nothing, there were two entities. They were brothers. One with blue energy, one with purple energy” As I read it, the hologram plays it out. “They hated each other, wanted each other dead. But they couldn’t kill each other, if they did, the other would die. The one with the purple energy suggested they create a world where they have two armies that fight each other. His brother agreed. The purple brother replaced the void with space: the stars, planets everything. But there was a problem: Everything was still. It would not move. The blue brother had the ability to move it. So he created time to move everything. They then created a planet. The blue brother created its inhabitants: the Aura Readers, beings that can control one element. The purple brother created the planet’s dangers. Poisonous plants, dangerous animals, and the corrupted people. The inhabitants have no idea that there were these brothers controlling them. But the elders knew. Their life is an entire chess game to the brothers; and endless chess game. But the blue brother created his ultimate weapon: The Guardian, a being that can control all elements. The guardian grew up learning all of the elements, including the blue brother’s gift of time. The Purple brother didn’t like this, so he tempered with the planet’s sun. The blue brother didn’t know what to do. But his people managed to escape with the mask of dimensions. But however, it took them to a void. Like the one the brothers were in. The brothers followed the people to keep an eye on their game. The blue brother helped the guardian and created a new universe. For some reason, his brother let him create the space for time. Thus making the creation of another universe. The guardian, with all of his might, created the universe’s heart: The Core. Here, the Aura Readers lived here. But it was getting over crowded, so they left the Core and headed for a planet with enough space and the right atmosphere: Earth. But there were life forms already here: Humans, Draconians, and Saurian. The planets inhabitants let them live here as one of their tribes: Spike, Shield, and the Aura Reader’s tribe, Swordsmen. They lived in peace. And the blue brother was winning. But the purple brother had an idea: Like how the blue brother gave his power of time to certain Readers, the purple brother gave his power of space to one Aura Reader. He told him that his kind is the ultimate kind and that all other races. That Reader’s name was Solo. Because of this, it caused the Dark Aura War. This angered the kings of the land: Pangaea, because it might involve them.’” I noticed that some of it is cut off. “’This caused the Draconian Saurian War. The Stress of both wars caused the great separation. A giant earthquake ripped apart Pangaea. The Draconians and Saurian thought the world was ending so they --’ Again, it’s cut off. ‘-- The humans and Aura Readers managed to survive. But the Aura Readers and Dark Readers kept their war secret form humanity. And humanity eventually forgot about them. The two brothers go by many names. Their real names: Dia, the blue brother, the god of time, Pal, the purple brother, the god of space. Two entities that never should have met. One of time, one of space. One cannot live without the other. Space without time, space would not move. Time without space, nothing would hold it. To the humans, they are known as God and Satin. Life is their chessboard. A game that’ll never end.’” As I finished, the hologram ended.   
“Wow” Callen said “If anyway were to see this, this would caused some serious controversy.”  
“That. Explains so much.” Fate says.  
“Ok, we learned a history lesson that completely screwed up my mind.” Callen said. “Now what do we do?” I look out the window and see Blake and his men trying to break through a door. It must be the time chamber.   
“You guys go back to the entrance and escape. I’ll deal with Blake.” I told them  
“What!?” Callen said “No, you’re not going at it alone.” He said.  
“Too many people died because of me! Uncle Marc, Paris, and I couldn’t do shit to protect them! If you two were to die, I’d be nothing.” I told them.  
“But if you don’t let us help, you’ll never get through to Blake.”  
“I’ll fight my way through.”  
“You’ll get tired; too tired to take on Blake. Besides, I have a plan.” Callen said.

Blake was trying to get the chamber door open. The aura grip doesn’t work against it and it survived their most powerful attacks.  
“Try it again!” Blake commanded out of his team. They blasted another powerful barrage of aura missiles; still nothing. “You’ve got to be – find a way through that door!”  
“Funny. All this way, and yet, you’re being stopped by a door.” I told Blake as I walked up to him. “Maybe I don’t have to fight you and should let the door do all the fighting.”  
“Shut up, Django! This is a minor setback. Once this opens, we’ll control everything!” Blake said. He claimed that he’s fighting for peace. But he just let out his real self.  
“Ahh. There he is, the monster I came to stop from destroying existence.” I told him. Blake realized what he said.   
“Get him.” He told his men.   
“Now, Callen!” Callen was on the platform next to us. He threw his grenades at the Darkwatch troops. It surprised them alright. Fates attacked from the other platform and attack them with her fire.   
“Django! Now!” Fate yelled. I used my Jet-boots and jet through the flames and attacked stood face-to-face to Blake.   
“No! I can’t you ruin everything!” He says  
“The more you yell like that, the more you prove my point about how much of a monster you become.” I told him back. He growls and extends his blade.   
“I’m going to have to use this.” He said. A purple energy surrounded the blade. He turned around and slashed the door. There was a ripple on the door and it completely shattered. “Like how you can control time, I can control space.”   
“No!” I said as I tried to stop him. But he used some space push and I got knocked back hard. Blake used his Jet-boots to enter the chamber. It was a giant chamber, bigger than the library. It was a large dome, in the middle, was a lever sticking out of the floor. Blake rushed to that lever and pulled it back to the left. I entered the chamber as the door closed. The lever went into the ground and the ceiling of the dome started glowing with a blue color.  
“You see what’s happening, Django!?” Blake said “This is the power of the Core! Once it finishes charging, the Dark Readers will rule!”  
“Then I’ll have to stop you before that happens.” I said as I pulled out my star blade. I then remembered the vision Logan gave me two years ago: Soldiers controlling  
Ace city and me and the Son about to fighting in a chamber. I can see it unfold now.  
We launched at each other, our swords clashing every time. Each time they struck, my sword glowed blue while his glowed purple.   
“That day where I helped you against those jocks. I never cared about helping you. Only Fate.”   
“What? Is that all that was? You were after Fate?”  
“What can I say? She’s hot.” When he said that, my anger boiled even more. I attacked him. He blocked it. “So those times when we hanged out, you and I that was nothing?”  
“At first yes, but we were somewhat friends. But she never wanted to do it with me. She said that she’ll only do it with the guy she truly loved and I had to prove it. But I knew what she meant. She loved you. But that doesn’t matter now. When I become king, I can have all the ladies I want.” We released from our sword lock.  
“There he is again. The corrupt monster I came to kill.” I said. We kept clashing swords again. He tried to use an aura push. I got knocked back. He teleported and tried to strike me from behind. I used my upgraded preflex and used an aura missile at point blank. The explosion knocked us back. He used his Jet-boots and launched at me. I used a time wave to slow him down. But he still was too fast. I used my Jet-boots to get out of the way. I fired some fire missiles and a heat wave. He fired back with the same amount but with white fire.   
When the smoke cleared, he had his blade extended. There the same purple energy again. He slashed his blade and sent a ripple wave at me. I tried to block it but it failed and I got knocked to the edge. He teleported and put his boot on me.   
“I call that the spaceal wave. Rips apart the space around it and separates everything.” I tried to get him off but his boot was heavy. I couldn’t get it off. I tried using an aura push, heat wave, wind tunnel. But nothing worked. Blake just stood there and laughs loudly. All in the while the ceiling was coming apart. The effects Nui warned me about are coming true. “This is the power of the great Aura Guardian!? Weak!” He removes his boot and grabs me by the neck. “You have such power and won’t use it. What? You still think you can save your friend? This isn’t a movie! I know what I’m doing! You can’t stop me no matter what you do or say!”  
“That’s what you said when we were at gunpoint. But we managed to get out of that now did we?” Blake growls and pushes on my neck.   
“A set back. My men don’t have the real will of a Dark Reader. That’ll change when we go back and I’ll have a real army!” In the center of the chamber a light blue energy shoots up and surrounds the dome. Blake sees energy and has an idea “That’s raw time energy. It can slow or speed up molecules. I wonder what it does to organics.” Blake walks up to it and sticks me into the energy stream. My god it was painful. It was like there was something extending in your insides. I couldn’t help but scream. “Yes! Scream all you like! In space, one can you hear you scream!” Blake yelled out. As I opened my eyes, I saw Nui behind Blake. He doesn’t even seem to notice his appearance.   
“Don’t fight it. Let the energy flow through you. Let it break the spiritual seal. Fight to stop him!” Nui yelled out. I then felt the seal break, the surge of energy shot out of me like a rocket. I can feel the incredible power. Blake felt the surge and had to let go of me. I remember feeling this power before. When I fought Logan, it burst out of me. I thought I lost it when Blake and I fought at Ace city. But now I know what that spiritual training was for. To bring it back; to get me in control of it. My anger, my emotions are what fuels it. The stubbornness to keep fighting. The elemental overload.   
I stepped out of the raw time energy. My veins glowed dark red.   
“The elemental overload.” Blake said. I remained silent. I now hated him talking. “Come on! Bring –“ Those words were interrupted when I used my Jet-boots and punched him in the jaw. The overload boosted my speed ten fold. Blake extended his blades. He dashes at me but my preflex sky rocketed and I blocked him quickly. I used the elemental push. I sent a shockwave with all the elements combined, but with the time element added. He tried using some space attacks but I deflect them easily. I dashed again at Blake. I grabbed his head and threw it to the ground. I restrained him with my aura. When I talked, it like all the voices of all Guardians before me were all talking at once. I can see them now. They all were wearing different hooded robes, different styles, all cheering me on, to end the war for good!  
“Blake Hunter. Your actions have destroyed the balance of the universe! And now you will pay the ultimate price!” I yelled out. I saw the fear in his eyes. I loved that. Now he knows what it like is to have your life end. I summoned down the aurora storm. With all the elements combined into it. It was like time slowed down as it went down. I looked at his face again. But then I realized something: I’m no better than him. The roles are switched. I’m him and he is a person. I instantly stopped the storm and all the elements separated and just splashed him. The restrains fade and he rubs his wrists. My veins stop glowing and I turn around. “No. I’m not ending it like this.” I told him. “I’m not you. I’ll fine a different way to end it.”  
“Even with all the power in existence…” Blake starts to say. “You’re still weak.” He launches at me. But I have seen enough of his tricks to know how to dodge this one. I quickly turn and grab his head and throw him to the ground and use the mind-link.

We were in the same white and black room. We were staring at each other.  
“The mind-link!?” He said “You think a move like this will defeat me!? I’m a Dark Reader! I can counter this easy.” I started to laugh.   
“No, Blake. It’s more than the mind-link.”   
“What?”   
“You see, I went through some spiritual training. And through that training I learned not only the elemental overload, but this.” The room turned black and red. The red side was my side. The black was on his.   
“What’s happening?” He said. There was a giant shaking, the two lights: red and black, started to fight. “Ahh. I get it.” He said as his light was fighting mine. “You think you can win!? I know the deal here! We’re fighting in spirit! I win, I win for good!” The black light started to overshadow mine. I was losing. Blake was laughing. “The power! This is real power!” My life started to flash before my eyes: Fate, Marc, Callen, Haidi, everyone. They’re fighting back on Earth expecting me to win.   
“No!” The red starts to expand. “You may have the power! But why do you fight!?”  
“I fight for peace!”  
“No! You fight for control!”  
“With control comes peace!”  
“With control comes taking someone’s freedom! Without freedom, true freedom, there is no peace!” The light starts to overshadow him. “I fight to protect! I fight for freedom! I fight to end this war!” The red light completely takes him over.  
“No! What’s happening!?”  
“I’m winning.” 

I release the mind-link. I move away from Blake. But I’m badly hurt. Blake gets up and tries to attack me with aura missiles. But there’s nothing.  
“What? Where’s my missiles?” He asked. I chuckled.  
“I took away your Reading powers.” I told him.   
“What!? That’s impossible! The mind-link can’t do that!”  
“Like I said, that spiritual taught me a lot. That move was the Gene-link.”  
“The Gene-link?”  
“A move created by Nui. It was a dangerous move but he couldn’t use it. But I have. I took away the gene that controls the elements.” I explained.   
“No…” Blake said silently. He looked at the floor while the place was starting to break apart.   
“Now, it you’ll excuse me, I have a universe to save.” I told him as I walked to the lever.  
“No…” I then sensed a great power from Blake. His aura turned total black. No light was shining through it. The black formed a mass and it grew, absorbed him into its body. It grew so large, it hit the ceiling. I recognized this form. I saw it two years ago when Marc, Fate, Callen, and I were traveling to Furno. I remember him.  
“If you wish to live, turn back” It’s him: Shroud.   
“So you finally decided to show yourself, Shroud.” I said  
“So you remember me.”  
“Yes, I remember you. Or should I say, Nui remembered you, Solo.” He growls at me.  
“I haven’t been called that in years.” He says. “Yes, as a Dark Reader, I heard to master everything, even death.”  
“So you have been inside Blake this whole time, giving him a boost. That explains why he was so strong.” I explain. For some reason, he didn’t fear me.  
“Yes. I was originality inside Logan when he was banished. But before our fight with you, I transfer to his son. His son had less self control than he did. But now you’re tired, you’ll be weak to face me.” He studies me. “Django Hunter. Your kind has been a thorn in my side for too long. You’re the son of an Aura Reader and a human. You’re neither Aura Reader nor human. So before I finish you, tell me, what are you?” I remained silent for a second. Thinking about my life; what I’ve done, what I am, WHO I am. I think back to my normal life. Where everything was normal; it quickly turned into a life I didn’t ask for. I did not ask for this life, it choose me. Do I regret it? Do I regret my life?

… No. How can I regret the only life I ever know?  
“I’m just a living being. But you really want to know what and who I am, Shroud? My name is Django Hunter!” I point to myself. “And I am the Aura Guardian.” Shroud growls and sends a jet stream at me. I hit the wall. “You think you can defeat me!? I’m the God of darkness!”  
“You Dark Readers have the habit of thinking that you’ll always win.” I focus some time energy into my palm. “It annoys the living hell out of me.” I launch it at him. He gets hurt and the stream ends.   
“You hurt me? I can’t be hurt!”   
“Again, you think too highly of yourself.” I said as I launched more time missiles at him. He continues to get hurt. He slams the ground and I get launched into the air. I use my wind thrusters to float in midair and fire as many missiles as I can. He continued to get hurt. He grabbed me with his giant hand.   
“I will not be defeated by a mere Reader!”  
“First of all, you haven’t been listening to what I said about you thinking too highly of yourself, have you? Second, you are no god.” I summon down the aurora storm on him. He’s getting hurt so much. But I’m putting so much stress on my body. I can’t take it but I keep pouring it on. He eventually falls down. I take out my sword. And stab him in the center of the head. “Now stay the hell out of here.” I said as he faded away. I see Blake’s body. I take open the door with my aura grip and drag Blake out the door. Fate and Callen have been waiting for me. They defeated the troops.   
“What happened?” Callen asks.  
“I beat him” I told them  
“I told you, you could do it.” Fate said. We hear Blake coughing.  
“Of course, you always cheer him on.” Blake said.  
“It’s over, Blake.” I told him. “Your army is gone. And you’re about to die form all that stress on your body.”  
“I don’t care now, Django. The Core is about to turn back time. And there is nothing you can do. The raw time energy has combined with space energy. You can’t get near it without dying.” He said. “It’s over for all of you…” He said as he died. I closed his eyes and lied him down. I looked at the chamber. The whole place is breaking apart.   
“Guys, go. I’ll stop it.”   
“What?” Fate asked  
“No, you won’t survive!” Callen yelled  
“If I don’t, there won’t be an existence left! Just go, guys” I tell.  
“I’m not going until it’s over.” Callen says  
“No! I can’t let you go and die!” Fate says. I kiss her one last time.   
“I won’t be truly gone.” I said. I turned and walked toward the chamber. I could hear the voices of other Aura Readers telling me that they were proud of what I become. But when I entered the chamber, I heard Shroud’s voice  
“You think it’ll be over when you turn that lever, but no. There will be another threat, and another, and another. But when 2012 arrives, there will be no Earth to fight over. I was trying to see how I can prevent that from happening.”  
“What? 2012?”  
“Too late, boy, I hope you’re happy. But if you really want to know… Go to Aterto.” I don’t know what he was talking about but this won’t be the last threat. But that’s not important. This is.   
I try to get past the time and space energy. I could feel it ripping me apart. But I have to keep going. The platform for the time lever lifts up. The lever is broken because of Blake. I jam my star blade into the slot. And struggle to move it back into place. My life flashes before me. From birth to now. For most of my memories Fate was in them. I look back to where Fate and Callen are. I force the lever in. I know this is what I have to do. After all, this is my story. My story is one of billions on this world. And no one will miss me if it ends too soon. I force the lever back into its original place. And then there’s a ligh –   
…  
…  
…  
…  
…  
…  
…  
…  
(The writing has been cut off)  
…  
…  
…  
…  
…  
(A different handwriting is found after this)

I saw him force that lever back into place. There was a blinding light, I could feel the Core starting to break up. I looked at the space above the Core and saw it rippling apart. I thought it was end… until it stopped. Everything stopped shaking. Callen helped me up. He pointed to the chamber and I saw it with the scars of war everywhere. I look over to the platform with the lever. And I saw him. I saw Django laying there. I ran over to him.  
“Django! Get up! You did it!” I yelled out. He won’t answer. He wouldn’t move. I tried using my aura to heal him but… it didn’t work. Django… was dead… "Django... This is funny, now wake up..." He wouldn't move still... "COME ON, WE WON! GET UP!" No matter how much I used my power to heal, he wouldn't wake. I couldn't stop the floodgates and tears start to run down my face. I got angry and start punching his chest, hoping that this was a fucking joke. That at the last second, he would wake up and it would be a cliche superhero ending but... "YOU WON'T LEAVE ME. I DON'T WANT TO BE LAST. WAKE UP!"  
“Fate…” Callen tries to get me to accept it, but I can’t.   
“No, he’s not dead!” I said as my hands shake uncontrollably holding on tightly to his. “He can’t…”  
“Fate…”  
I ended up carrying his body to the exit. Callen offered to help but I didn’t want help. I wanted to look at him more. Even through it killed me to look at him like this. His eyes were closed and I covered his eyes with his hood. We made it to the exit. I glanced over at my dad’s grave Django set up. I’m the last one now. Django always told me it was us versus the world as kids. But now it’s only me.  
We went in through the portal. We were back into the space tower. When we went outside, the place looked like after a whole war, scars everywhere. The Ark Raiders and Zodian Corps arrest the Darkwatch troops that surrendered. The Dark Readers and the Tainted died when Blake died. I guess it was a hive mind. Without their master, they are nothing. Everyone, even the citizens, was cheering; cheering over the defeat of Darkwatch. Just celebrating being alive. I thought Django would go as an unsung hero. But when I exited the tower, the people saw me. They saw Django’s dead body. But the people of Paldia, they knew what he had done for them.   
Weeks later, they built a statue of him between the time and space towers. The ‘Devil of Ace city’ became the ‘Guardian of Paldia.’ At the base of the statue, there was an open coffin for him. Callen was with me. Before Callen left, he put his hand on my shoulder and said “He’d want you to keep living. He’s not truly dead.” After some time, Haidi came by. She pointed at the sky and I saw the aurora lights.   
“They are moaning for him.” she said. “The spirits of the dead Aura Readers.”  
Sometimes, I still hear some people talking about how humans and Aura Readers are completely different. That’s bullcrap. There isn’t anyone with more humanity than Django… I will carry on for you, and carry the burden that has changed you from the Django I loved then.


	19. Epilogue: We don't die, our souls live forever

_Black and golden is what heaven looks like. Who had the idea that Heaven was clouds when it’s black with golden linings? Wait, those look like circuits almost… Where am I? I stand up and look around. Everything seems to go on forever. If I start walking, will it go on forever? Maybe my Aura Sense will help me here. I focus to use it.  
…  
...  
…  
Wait, am I focusing harder than I should? Hold on. Do my powers even work here? I test it with a simple aura bolt.   
…  
…  
…  
Nothing.  
What is this? Where am I?  
Last I remember… Wait, what did I do? How did I even get here?  
“I brought you here.”  
“Who said that?” I see a figure in a golden robe. The gold was so bright, it was almost white, and the robe was patterned with light blue circuits. Over his shoulder seems to be a side cape like mine. He had a long beard with his white hair extending out of the hood he had on. Those robes look familiar. Those are Aura Reader Robes. “Who are you? How did you take me here?”  
“Your body is… somewhere else. I forgot where.” He said putting his hand on his beard stroking it. “Sorry, this place confuses me. I don’t know how my brother manages to use it.”  
“I said WHERE AM I?”  
“Calm down, Django.”  
“How do you kn—“  
“For the love of me, I don’t have much time before my brother realizes what I am doing.” He said as though he was late for something. “VERY long story short, something happened that should not have happened in your battle with Blake. As humans would say, I ‘played two at this game’. Seemed fitting the situation and I saved your soul. However, your body remains… I don’t know. Some aura conjurations techniques later, I put your soul here.”  
“And where is here and who are you?”  
He let out an annoyed sigh. “The Nexus of Time and Space: a space beyond any living being’s domain. You are lucky, a mortal to reach here, but I am out of options. My brother is winning. And he can’t win; otherwise, the plane of spacetime will pay for it.”  
“This doesn’t make any sense.”  
“I didn’t expect to answer everything; I thought you would be outcold longer than I thought so I have more time to complete the technique. Now it is done.”  
“Is what done!? What are you doing!?”  
“I’m sorry Django. But in order for me to win, I have to do this. Since you won’t remember anything, I will tell you that you will have a second chance, but this comes with a price. Until the day comes, you will enjoy a normal life.”  
“But what about my family!? What about Fate!?”  
“I’m sorry, but for now, you will forget her.”  
‘No…”  
“If all goes to plan, you will see her again.” He said. What is going on? I don’t want to forget Fate, I love her. How can he do this?  
A strange circle appears under me. “NO, YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” My scream echoes throughout the Nexus.   
“Soon, those two will find the Nexus too, and once they do, you will be found by them. If they do manage to do so.”  
“How do you know this!?” Part of me is starting to fade from the bottom up. I don’t this… I try to fight my way out but I can’t.  
“I am God.” I heard him say before I fade completely.  
…  
…  
…_

_A city… My home… The breeze of the rooftops; the thrill of the freerunning. My own freerunning delivery is taken off already. This is only my 10th delivery in the past 5 weeks. I taken a different route to get to my destination but it all feels familiar. Like I have massive déjà vu. I pass by the temple, a place of spiritual energy of this city. I never been inside and yet… I feel like I should know. Images of the most beautiful girl I have ever seen flickers through my mind…  
I shake it off and continue.   
A name goes through my head…  
What is it…  
…  
…  
…  
“Fate” Such a beautiful name. I wonder if she exists._


End file.
